Medical things you didn’t know?

[Emptychairdoasolo]

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?

Look on the open window as letting in fresh air in case the room is stuffy and anyone feels faint if that removed souls from the equation.

To PPs saying they shouldn't open the window because they want to be able to say goodbye: if you believe in souls etc. then an open window isn't a vacuum sucking them away - if the dead want to hang around to say goodbye, then surely they can.

And to PPs saying it's 'unscientific'.

Then I suppose the doctor shouldn't say 'good morning'. That's a waste of time too. They should just say, 'diagnosis: cancer. Stage 4. No treatment options. 8-12 months left. Next!'

And when someone dies, they should just throw the body in the skip, because anything else is unscientific, and a waste of time and moni. Social rituals are a waste of time, and have no place in medicine, right?

I honestly can't imagine someone getting het up about an open window when someone they've loved has died and if they do they should have a stern word with themselves. Why on earth would you get cross when people are being kind and respectful?

I happened to be talking to a friend of mine today who is a retired nurse. We were at book club and touched on care of those who have died. She described this exact scenario - opening the window and talking to the deceased as they handle them, says they were all taught to do it and they still do. She worked on Obs and Gynae for a long time and said it was particularly difficult with the babies.

I’m so sorry @beatingtheodds it is shit and especially at such a young age. My FIL had mesothelioma and it was awful.

Nope, nurse here! That’s the reason.

No, it is.... i know i have and a few of my colleagues have done too. Its more of a superstitious thing then medical.

Yes you can and unfortunately they tend to occur in young people and carry a poor prognosis. Fortunately they are rare.

I imagine there are lots of medical things most people don't know. I'm a doctor and there are lots of things I don't know.

Def yes to opening the window to let the soul fly free, also talk to recently deceased patients as if they were still with us whilst carrying out last offices, it's a simple but important mark of respect. I also used to say night night to patients who had passed

I am a nurse, and that is the reason. The body isnt there long enough to start to smell.

"It's called liver mortis."

I think it's livor mortis. Liver mortice is at the butcher's.

Me too. Plus a last little squeeze of their hand before they go down to Rose Cottage and wish them safe travels.

If you have little footprints at the back of your eye it can be a sign of bowel cancer or a condition called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. We called them bear tracks but the medical term is Congenital Hypertrophy of the Retinal Pigmented Epithelium (CHRPE)

That breast cancer is the only one without 'stages' You either have breast cancer or metastatic breast cancer (which means it's spread).

And there are many types / sub types of breast cancers and many types and sub types of chemo involved with treating all different types of cancers.

Even having lost many family members to this horrid disease, I was completely ignorant of the whole process.

Perhaps it varies between cultures.

As a small child, I used to play in builders skips and one of the things we used to play with was the long shiny granules of asbestos. We would throw it to each other, rub it in our hair and sometimes lick it like ice cream. These were in the days long before H&S was taken seriously.

That there are such things as parathyroid glands! Apparently they are tiny, we have 4 & they regulate calcium in the blood. Only knew they exist when I was told I had had 2 removed!

I don’t think this counts as medical, but it’s a body-related thing. Your foot is the same size as the inside of your lower arm (from wrist to elbow). Someone told me this recently and I thought it was bonkers, but mine certainly is!

I’m going to add two which sound nuts but work every time for me - I have chronic uti (three years and constant antibiotics). I also get blepharitis.
I get vaginal thrush a lot off the back of the ABs - vicious version which drugs don’t touch - and a reasonable layer of honey with a tiny bit of water splashed on, smeared all over the “fanny” area, cures it. (Wear a pad!) Every time. Takes 4-5 smears over a day or so. Any honey. Also cures the blepharitis.
(I’m not making this up - I read clinical
trials in desperation…)

My mental health nurse told me just two weeks ago that it was based on serotonin levels and that my new medication would help to prevent the serotonin loss…that’s concerning!

Have you tried taking D-Mannose?

They also take the same amount of blood from dogs - they have to weigh at least 25kg to donate as they use the human blood bags. One of mine has donated 25 times.

As a staff nurse with 18 years of people bending their arms and setting machines off or pulling cannulas out. I wish everyone had that fear!.

And you still get it after a c section! No one told me but luckily my friend warned me after hers- she thought she was bleeding to death!

Nope, my arm is MUCH longer.