Sunday, February 24, 2013

The flu


I don't recall any fainting episodes once I was in dental school. I found myself quite nervous on the day we had to practice IVs on each other but I ended up okay. I've had multiple blood draws since then and usually do fine. I take precautions like sitting down or even lying down during blood testing and I recognize when a fainting spell is coming on (the biggest being the desire to flee to the bathroom, which I tend to avoid now).

During my oral surgery rotation I did have a close call. I was in the OR and was actually scrubbed (wearing the sterile gown and gloves for surgery), assisting with a surgery. I began to feel very ill. I sat down for a few minutes but this did not seem to help. I ended up in the hallway, sitting down on the floor. I waited many minutes and did not feel better. I ended up going home to bed. Turns out I had influenza and was home sicker than I've ever been in bed for days. But, I didn't faint!

Later during application time, I heard that one of the oral surgery staff at the college of dentistry was reviewing with another student who in our class was interested in oral surgery. When my name was pointed out, she told them I wasn't going to get in because I "fainted in the OR."

I was mortified! I wondered how she had known since she didn't even work at the hospital. And for once, I hadn't fainted--I was actually truely quite ill. It seemed ironic to me that although I am a fainter, this time I hadn't actually fainted and I was worried it would have some bearing as she said on my chances. Luckily she had little to no bearing on the application process.

1 comment:

Tawnya said...

Ha Ha! You're the fainter! ;) Just kidding, you are a surgeon and that is awesome!