Squeamish

    A few seasons ago,  and probably for only one season, there was a hospital centered medical show that depicted actual real-time medical events and procedures.  Not that pathetic  and corny TV show that stages re-enactments of outlandish situations, but a show with real -life doctors  dealing with actual traumas.  Patients underwent emergency surgeries due to illness or accidents, and the cameras ran throughout.  Sometimes the patients did not survive.   I assume the patients or their families must have authorized the filming and telecasting.  I remember watching incredibly graphic scenes of complex and brutally realistic medical interventions and procedures that would put Kevin Ware's merely broken leg to shame.  The point is I was able to reach a point of detachment that made it possible for me to view the gore and the tragedy.   Except for one time, when a woman had reached into the glove compartment of her car where she had stashed a loaded pistol, and the gun discharged, maiming several of her fingers.  I had to quickly change the channel before I could see how the surgeons tried to put her hand and fingers back together.  Reconstructing aortas, intestines, even brains were all viewable, but not the fingers.  I get shivers just thinking about it.
       In similar fashion, as each subject is brought to mind or is potentially  applicable in my personal or family life, I view internet videos of medical procedures and conditions.  For example, I have viewed videos, many in real time, of complete cataract surgeries (the taco fold is way cool), corneal transplants (in Fuchs' Dystrophy patients), colonosopies (both virtual and the real thing), ureteroscopy and lithotripsy (for kidney stones), and total knee replacement (most gruesome).   This week my dentist referred me to a periodontist, where he said I would be presented with  several tooth salvaging options, one of which would involve "crown lengthening."  The term was new to me, so when I got home I hied myself to the computer to learn all about it. Reading about it was bad enough, but when I got to the video where "the flap" was lifted, I couldn't press escape fast enough.   I still have those shivers running up and down my legs.  Save me from my teeth.