Monday, June 21, 2010

What does it actually look like??

Today I had an experience not many people are lucky enough to be witnessing and not a victim of - the Operating Room at a hospital. With all the 'reality' shows on TV today, we can watch pretty much anything, all the blood and gore we want. There is something to be said though for witnessing the process in person. I really think that every child should have to experience an OR at some point before they graduate from college and if it weren't for HIPPA we probably could. If not for anything but to learn to respect their own body. It could be any kind of operation, just the visual of anestesia putting someone out and the commencement of the operation are enough to send at least one third of the people fleeing the room. Do you know what fat actually looks like? It looks like congeeled, soupy mac & cheese. It sticks to your insides - intestines, stomach, arteries etc - so much so that it has to be cut away from them. The fat is rubbery and gelatenous, bright yellow in color like sunshine but it does not bring happiness, that I assure you. Do you really want CO2 pumped into the cavity the surgeon is working on to blow it up for better visuals? Or titanium floating around in your insides?

The visual of seeing a colon removed, or gastric bypass, or a heart valve replacement is for sure enough to get kids to start thinking about their future. About what they love, about exercise and eating quality food, and maybe even about going into medicine to try and save other lives. If it only prevented 5% of deadly preventable diseases from occuring that would be a fantastic feat.

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