I'm super squeamish.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Contamination
Today an HIV+ patient who also has TB coughed in my face. It was horrible. No matter how many times I get body fluids spilled, spluttered, squirted or projected onto me by patients, I will never get used to it. I know doctors who are totally blasé about it. Not me - I'm extremely squeamish for a doctor. Blood is just about the only thing I can stand. I never flinch in front of a patient, but as soon as I can I scrub myself as clean as I can. I don't wear a white coat anymore because no-one does where I work now, but I always used to wear one before - not to look like a doctor, but as protection from body fluids!
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6 comments:
We, the 'non-medical' types, do not always realise what the doctors have to face on a daily basis. It is stories like these that give us all a new appreciation for the work you guys do. Thanks.
eeuwww!!! There is an American doctor or who works in a rural hospital. She always has a mask and gloves on. I think it's [pretty sad, but the exposure the multitude of disease on a daily basis must push some people over the edge.
Arnold, this is still mild compared to other things that've happened to me or things that doctors get exposed to ;)
Bridget, that's going a bit too far. Although, if faced with a patient with probable drug resistant TB, I'd probably also wear a mask, but I've already been exposed to so much ordinary TB as a South African that I probably already have loads of TB bacilli swimming around in my body.
I recently heard of an Anaethetist in Aus that uses an LMA and HME whenever he flies on a commercial airline to avoid the virus's. So I don't think you're too bad (yet).
For the non-medical readers of this blog, sorry about the jargon. Look it up.
You have got to be kidding!
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