the most horrifying thing in the world

[janegodzilla]

I think working in the medical field is beginning to warp my sensibilities a little bit. When I worked at the law firm, I was afraid of normal things, like being assaulted or getting into a car accident or having my apartment broken into. Those things are still scary and I worry about them, don't get me wrong, but the thing I really worry about? The thing that really scares me, now that I work at a hospital?

NECROTIZING SOFT TISSUE INFECTIONS

Seriously, they are the scariest things ever. The really aggressive forms spread super-fast, and the only way to get rid of it is to debride down well into the healthy tissue, because infected tissue is pretty much guaranteed to go necrotic no matter what you do and by the time it necroses the infection will have already spread deeper and you are fucked. Oh, and! AND! If debridement doesn't work?

AMPUTATION!!!!

Or, you know, death. AWESOME.

I've gotten increasingly fixated on the stupid things because they present on it every other month or so at Trauma Conference, and while I love Trauma Conference to the depths of my nerdy little soul, the NSTI presentations are ghastly and horrifying and make me hide my face behind my fingers the same way I do when I watch certain horror films. The pictures, oh my god, the pictures! I always walk out feeling paranoid and wishing I lived in a giant plastic bubble, because when you live in a giant plastic bubble you can't get agonizingly painful infections that result in amputation and/or death. I am pretty sure about this.

Working in trauma has also left me feeling more paranoid than usual about traumatic brain injuries. Seeing the kids in our neighborhood do normal kid things makes me want to freak out, all "OH GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU ARE GOING TO BREAK YOUR HEAD! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SIT QUIETLY AND HAVE A TEA PARTY OR SOMETHING?!" I'm a little worried that if I ever do have children, I'll end up wanting to wrap them up in bubble wrap so that they'll be cushioned at all times, with just a little hole cut out for their face. They will look like this:



Only with bubble wrap.

Comments

[arboretum]

roflj klfs;gfdg you are so funny :D

though ok i'll hand it to you, necrotic flesh is terrifying

there was one time on uhhhhhhh house, when they had a patient whose flesh was DECAYING ON THEM AS THEY LIVED and they had to AMPUTATE and i won't lie, it was horrifying

[janegodzilla.livejournal.com]

They presented on it last week and they're presenting on it this week too, and IT IS SO AWFUL AND THERE ARE ALWAYS A MILLION PICTURES. D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D: So gross and awful and terrifying, like, whatever happened to all the nice presentations on splenic injury? THOSE DIDN'T INVOLVE DECAYING FLESH AND AMPUTATIONS!

[deepsix.livejournal.com]

You're not kidding, dude. :( My dad's best friend had it a few years back, and while it was caught early enough that he didn't lose his leg (luckily, his wife's a doctor), it's done a serious number on him. Just awful and terrifying.

[janegodzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that's so awful! :( I'm so sorry to hear about your dad's friend, and I'm really glad he didn't lose his leg. Thank god his wife realized what was going on! The cases I tend to hear about are the ones that, um, don't end well. It's just really scary stuff.

Sometimes I miss the days when I didn't know all of these horrifying things. I feel better equipped to face them -- knowledge is power, I guess? -- but DAMN, there are some things I wish I didn't know about.

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

I hear you.

Doing research into human bites was bad enough. Just... ew.

It's not even squeamishness, it's just this realisation of "holy shit, the human body isn't as self-repairing as it seems."

[janegodzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh jeez, human bites are AWFUL.

I get what you mean about realizing that the body -- as awesome and tough as it is -- is still kind of horrifyingly fragile, and that some stuff is just WAY too nasty for our normally amazing bodies to fight off. Or, in the case of traumatic brain injury, that the very structures that make the skull so amazing and protective end up damaging the brain further because they're so rigid that the brain can't GO anywhere if there's swelling or a bleed. :( Gahhhhhh, fragile human bodies WHY.

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

Human saliva is awful. *shudders*

And yes on the skull stuff-- it's a fucked up little irony, isn't it... kind of like what happens with airbags and seatbelts in a full-impact car crash... those things often do the body further damage when they're there to protect people. :/