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the most horrifying thing in the world
Mar. 30th, 2010 05:29 pmI 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.
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.