Page 22 | Medical things you didn’t know?

Emptychairdoasolo · 2023-07-04T20:09:27+00:00

Just watching a medical drama and wondered what happens if you die on the operating table? Do they just sew you back up without repairing anything inside? but also had me thinking what other medical things didn’t you know until you maybe experienced them or learned?

Tinkietot · 05/07/2023 16:47

Changingmynameyetagain · 04/07/2023 21:22

Scientists aren't sure how exactly paracetamol works. They have a general idea but aren't sure of the exact mechanism.

@Changingmynameyetagain I thought it was a COX 3 inhibitor for prostaglandins. Same as NSAIDs are COX 1/2 inhibitors….

adviceneeded1990 · 05/07/2023 16:49

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · 05/07/2023 15:10

So I’m a midwife rather than a nurse (but did a month on a general ward as part of my training) so sadly am more au fait with stillbirth/baby loss rather than adults dying.

Last offices for a baby are slightly different and to some extent will depend on the gestation of the baby. Parents will usually but not always spend quite some time, possibly days with the baby. During that time we will take photos, hand and foot prints, maybe a lock of hair if there is hair and parents want this. So we make a memory box for the parents with these little items in the box.

we might dress the baby depending on parents wishes (and gestation), smaller babies tend to get dressed in a little robe which comes from a special company who make them.

When the parents are ready to say goodbye we will take anything that the parents want putting with the baby, so this might be photos of them photos of siblings, a teddy. We tend to have little pairs of teddies now and we can put one with the baby and give the other to the parents so they have the matching teddy that baby has.

once the parents have gone we will put the baby in a wooden lidded casket to be taken down to the mortuary. I will always make a “nest” around the baby using rolled up towels as they often look so small in the box and I worry about them sliding around. I will always talk to the baby when doing this and remind them how loved they were. I will always personally take the baby to the mortuary myself. I don’t like calling for a porter to come. I think it’s one last thing I can do for them so that someone who “knew” them takes them on that journey out of the maternity unit.

Thank you for doing what you do. I’ve got a very close friend who suffered a late second trimester loss and people like you helped her immensely. She’s since had a little boy who’s now a toddler and still sends a card each year thanking the person who took such good care of her first baby.

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 16:52

Tiredmum100 · 04/07/2023 22:50

Oh yes, I completely agree. It's not a clinical necessity at all.

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It's a Danish tradition.

I learned about it some years ago and have always done it, thought it was a lovely thing to do, to let the soul/spirit free.
It felt as if it would be easier to assist reincarnation. I hope someone will do it for me.

ClawedButler · 05/07/2023 16:56

Reading about how nurses will care for their patients even after death is bringing a tear to my eye. So what if none of that is medically necessary, or scientific? It's about being a human being, showing respect to the dead and dying and the people who love them.

On another note, Botox has over a dozen medical applications now, like juvenile idiopathic spasticity, or recurrent migraine. For many of the indications they're not 100% sure WHY it works, just that it does.

ClawedButler · 05/07/2023 16:58

Ditto most analgesics and anaesthetics. We (humans) don't really know how they work, but they do, and reliably enough to be able to adjust dosing etc.

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 16:58

Dibbydoos · 04/07/2023 23:17

You have 2 days of food in your intestine.

A specific energy frequency leaves your body through tubules, this has been labelled your soul by scientists who found it.

Depending on your diet you can have a lot more than that, also exercise, drinking habits make a difference.

thing47 · 05/07/2023 17:00

thing47 · 05/07/2023 13:07

I've got one. Heart bypass surgery, despite its name, can in fact be carried out without putting the patient on bypass.

No one else? I was staggered that major heart surgery could be performed on a beating heart. I assumed putting it on bypass was a given…

HollaHolla · 05/07/2023 17:02

willWillSmithsmith · 05/07/2023 11:11

My dad died on the operating table. I never asked though what happens.

This is not really medical more biological but I didn’t know until fairly recently that girls height stops when they start menstruating. (Still not sure if that is correct).

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The height/periods thing would make sense.... I haven't grown an inch since I was 12.

Tiredmum100 · 05/07/2023 17:06

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 16:52

It's a Danish tradition.

I learned about it some years ago and have always done it, thought it was a lovely thing to do, to let the soul/spirit free.
It felt as if it would be easier to assist reincarnation. I hope someone will do it for me.

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Exactly. And I will continue to do it.

BrimFullOfAsher · 05/07/2023 17:10

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

Nope, it's definitely to let the soul out.

Why would there be a smell? We don't leave the patients there any longer than needed and certainly not long enough to rot

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 17:11

BoreOfWhabylon · 04/07/2023 23:48

No red and white flowers together in a vase either. Beg, borrow or steal a bloom of another colour to include as well.

Because of blood and bandages during the war, and death.

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 17:19

Biffatcrafts · 05/07/2023 00:04

I just learned that undiagnosed or recurrent UTIs (particularly in the elderly) can cause mental changes, which can be mistaken for dementia or alzheimers. Maybe everyone else already knew that, but it sure was news to me.

My mother went 'doolally' as my Dad described it. I had arrived to visit and he met me at the door (he was hardly ever there when I arrived) looking very worried because she had woken him at 2.00 a.m. with a cup of tea.

I had previously called the GP as she had symptoms of a UTI and she had been put on meds. She went back to normal.

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 17:20

wandawaves · 05/07/2023 00:10

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

Weird. I have never done this, never worked with anyone who has done this, and I've actually never heard of it. I'm not in the UK though, so may be cultural differences.

It is a Danish tradition.

Thisisnowmyusername · 05/07/2023 17:23

Rosietheravisher · 04/07/2023 23:51

Iremember noticing when my niecesuddenk

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What?????

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 05/07/2023 18:03

Appleofmyeye2023 · 05/07/2023 15:15

All this opening window stuff ..and people arguing it’s not scientific

imho, nursing is about care. And I assume for a lot of nurses that doesn’t stop when one of their patients dies - most of us will never have the uncomfortable “privilege” of laying out a body. The NHS put a stop to that by and large over last 75 years too.

I think most of us would find it hard to think of our loved ones as “just a body” in the moments and hours after death, it takes time to superstate in our minds that the human part of us has left the body , the “quick” , “the soul“ or just the pulse and brain activivty depending g on your beliefs. It is not an instant thing- nor, for a lot of nurses, or other emergency works or doctors is it if they’ve just spent time with that patient

Rituals are part of our way to come to terms with letting go of the living breathing person and separating that from the corpse in front of us. It doesn’t really matter what the ritual is, mostly, it is the ritual, the set of standard actions done with respect, that makes you feel like you’ve done the best you can and done the “right” thing by that person before they are let go.

so, please stop with the why are we paying nurses to do this, it’s not scientific, it belongs in Victorian age …we need rituals psychologically to help US come to terms and process a death.

I agree,rituals get us through difficult times but what do you mean by nurses not laying out patients in the last 75 years? As I said earlier when someone died next to me in a hospital ward 15 years ago,they were cleaned, washed, and got ready for the family to view- and the window was opened too.

amicissimma · 05/07/2023 18:05

I'm surprised at how many people open the window to 'let the soul out'. I had thought it was quite rare.

I volunteer with the elderly and had heard of this being done when their loved ones died. Anyone who mentioned it had found it a very negative thing, because they wanted the soul around when a priest/iman came to bless the deceased or because they found it very much in the line of 'right, they've gone, get rid of the soul'. They all said that they didn't feel able to challenge the person doing it, often it was too quick, and as one lady said 'I'd just lost my companion and love of the last 55 years, I was in no state to argue with someone about her stupid superstition.'

I do hope everyone who wants to do it checks with the relatives first, waiting for them to arrive if they aren't present at the time, and in a way that makes it easy for them to ask for it to be left closed without feeling they are doing something wrong.

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · 05/07/2023 18:07

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 05/07/2023 18:03

I agree,rituals get us through difficult times but what do you mean by nurses not laying out patients in the last 75 years? As I said earlier when someone died next to me in a hospital ward 15 years ago,they were cleaned, washed, and got ready for the family to view- and the window was opened too.

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She didn’t say nurses hadn’t laid people out in 75 years. She said “most of us”, so I think she meant non nurses. Because the nhs was formed 75 years ago meaning nurses rather than relatives/lay people have been doing it for 75 years.

Changingmynameyetagain · 05/07/2023 18:15

Your ovaries aren’t attached to the fallopian tubes. And you can ovulate on your left side and the egg can enter the right fallopian tube and vice versa.

EweCee · 05/07/2023 18:22

MrsMarzetti · 05/07/2023 16:45

My Sister was a redhead and when she had an op they struggled to put her under. When she had cancer, pain relief just did not work unless they doubled the dose, same with sleeping tablets.

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That was my experience with cancer too - after my surgery I was in excruciating pain despite being on a fentanyl PCA pump (any time they tried to move me I lost consciousness from the pain). After 1.5 days of this, they sent a pain specialist in to see me and he asked, sensitively!, what colour my hair normally was (I was bald from the chemo) and explained that red heads, and some white blondes, are often analgesic naive (I think that’s the phrase) meaning synthetic pain relief doesn’t work on them, as in my case. They switched me to morphine (the ‘natural’ version) and the relief was instant, it worked! It now makes sense why I can’t feel the effects of paracetamol/ ibuprofen unless I take a high dose or the sedation for procedures has never quite worked and I’ve been in a lot of pain from them.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 05/07/2023 18:23

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · 05/07/2023 18:07

She didn’t say nurses hadn’t laid people out in 75 years. She said “most of us”, so I think she meant non nurses. Because the nhs was formed 75 years ago meaning nurses rather than relatives/lay people have been doing it for 75 years.

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Omg, how dippy am I? That totally got lost in translation 🙄😂

Appleofmyeye2023 · 05/07/2023 18:39

paradoxicalfrog · 05/07/2023 16:44

I you think the "chemical imbalance" theory has rigorous scientific evidence to support its application in depression, I think you need to watch:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n39z

The Antidepressant StoryPanorama
Panorama examines whether the current generation of antidepressant drugs have lived up to their promises, following patients who have suffered serious side effects.

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🤦‍♀️
you either didn’t read my earlier messages and this one correctly, or you have failed to understand my point.

read my earlier message on the serotonin pathway hypothesis for SSRIs perhaps? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Appleofmyeye2023 · 05/07/2023 18:43

HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas · 05/07/2023 18:07

She didn’t say nurses hadn’t laid people out in 75 years. She said “most of us”, so I think she meant non nurses. Because the nhs was formed 75 years ago meaning nurses rather than relatives/lay people have been doing it for 75 years.

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Yes, sorry, even when I read it back it did sound like nurses weren’t doing it either😳
I did mean, general Jo public doesn’t lay out bodies much- most of us can get to mature age without seeing a dead body at all. . A lot of people die in hospital or care homes since NHS came into being, so it falls on staff there .

Stomacharmeleon · 05/07/2023 18:53

I had Botox directly into my bowel post surgery for a massive parastomal hernia and tumour. It stretches the abdominal tissue and reduces tension. Helps with the healing and the pain.
My stomach was like a drum pre surgery and it was bloody painful having it done!

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 19:15

Mother87 · 05/07/2023 00:38

Chinese heritage here - when my Dfather passed, we opened the window & lit Temple Incense in the room - to help his soul on it's way, along with the curls of smoke rising into the air🥹 (we also had a Taoist/Buddhist ceremony 49 days later to "ensure" that he was definitely well on his way)

I thought it was a Buddist tradition which is why I have done it but when I checked I couldn't find out for sure. Also leaving something out for 7 days, food?

MonumentalLentil · 05/07/2023 19:19

Dustyblue · 05/07/2023 01:30

This thread is gripping!

When you donate blood, they take the same amount from everyone. So when you're donating next to a 6'4" bodybuilder, they take the same from both of you.

If you have a double-lung transplant, the incision is a cross-cut that looks way further down than I would've thought your lungs are!

Genetic Truth- Boys will always be taller than their mothers.

My neighbour is short, but her son is shorter.