I Want to Be a Doctor

I Want to Be a Doctor or Something — Clean Transcript

Robin: Welcome back to I Want to Be a Doctor or Something. I'm Dr. Robin and I'm here with my friend Jill, a registered nurse.

Jill: Hi, friends.

Robin: We're two health care besties sharing the real wild and funny side of medicine for anyone who's thought about a health care career. Ready?

Jill: Let's go.

Robin: So today we're gonna be doing Never Have I Ever, which is so fun to be able to do with a friend because I don't know any of these specific things about Jill because we've never done this before. So we're gonna learn about each other.

Jill: Yes, I want to ask you because this is a question I've been thinking about. So never have I ever passed out in front of a patient.

Robin: Oh boy, have I. So yeah, so this is when I was like so young. I was in medical school and it was like my first ever, like once a week we were allowed to go to like a doctor's office for a few hours to actually see like real doctor stuff and we were paired with a doctor and I was seeing a procedure for the first time. Now, this was not, like, a procedure. This was taking a tiny little mole off this woman's back. So we were in the procedure room and she was like lying on her belly and there was the medical assistant, there was the doctor and there was me and the woman was chatting and everyone's talking and then the doctor starts to cut into her and I just, like, whoop—right on the floor. On my back, completely passed out, did not know what was happening. And I woke up like looking at the ceiling and thankfully I was wearing a bun in my hair or I would have like thwapped my head on that concrete floor. So, really glad I had that bun. I thought I would never live that down. There's like one of my first weeks at this new place. I ended up getting a job there. That was my first job out of medical school was at that clinic and it was the woman who watched me pass out who put in a good word for me to start working there. So it turned out totally fine in the end.

Jill: It's funny how things can form a circle like that. That's really good. Well, I guess they could see that you were a real person who had obviously some real issues with seeing certain things and that's nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of people get queasy and kind of nauseated over certain things.

Robin: It took me so long to get used to going into surgery. I would feel so lightheaded. I would have to go sit down. I'd have to drink apple juice, but you know what? I got over it. And so if anyone else gets queasy, don't worry. I do too. Does anything make you queasy?

Jill: Well, I have to say I can do a lot of things as a nurse, but cleaning up vomit is not my favorite. So anytime I see someone vomit or I smell it or I see it, then it makes me instantly want to have the same reaction. So I usually have to walk away. It takes a lot. And then I can come back and hit it later. You know what?

Robin: I've got some Vicks or something like that under my nose.

Jill: I was gonna ask you. Yeah. I actually had like tangerine oil because the Vicks for whatever reason just did not, it made me feel like headachy. Yeah, that's a good idea. I know. Yeah, it's just something about that. But otherwise, I can't say I've ever almost passed out, but that would be a close call, whenever something like that happens.

Robin: You don't wanna throw up in front of a patient either. So.

Jill: No.

Robin: But it sounds like you managed not to.

Jill: Yeah, I did go to the bathroom a couple of times. [Unclear.] You said with the passing-out episode that you still had like recurrences when you go into surgery, things like that, but you kind of trained yourself to get used to that by kind of knowing your body and your reactions, I guess.

Robin: Yeah, well, a couple of things really helped. One was there was this, she was actually the first person to yell at me in an OR, was a circulating nurse, but she also saw that I was not doing well, so she gave me a bunch of tips. She was like, "Get some apple juice," which I didn't like. I ended up getting, like, white grape juice instead. She's like, "Just drink a bunch of it before you come in. Don't lock your knees." She taught me different things to not pass out. And she'd come put like an ice pack on the back of my neck when I was getting better, but still struggling. So she turned out, even though she was like really mean to me the first day, she turned out to be like super helpful. And then the other thing that really helped was a surgeon actually. And I don't remember what he noticed about me, because at that point I was not passing out anymore, but I was still feeling like bad. I would get this creepy-crawly feeling in my body. And every time I watched someone cut into someone, I just feel like, like I had kind of braced myself. And he said, "I think you have synesthesia." And I was like, "Isn't that that thing where like senses get crossed?" And he's like, "No, no." So what I have and what I think you have is mirror touch synesthesia. Because when I cut into someone, I feel it in my body. Like it's not the same thing, but it doesn't feel good. I think you have the same thing. And I was like, "Oh." For me, having a surgeon tell me that, and he gave me some tips too. He was like, "Here's how to cope with that. Here's how to separate yourself from it." And that was really helpful too, because I still like, I hear about anything happening, even just hearing about it. And like, I can feel this like icky skin feeling. It's not just like icky, it's like painful, but especially watching. I'm just like, have to take a breath. But yeah, that was weird. Because back then people didn't talk about synesthesia like they do now. And so having him just kind of spring it on me was really weird. But it turns out that's probably why I was so passy-outy was that reaction. So.

Jill: Wow, well that was really neat to learn about that. And that way you could put a name to what you were feeling and then you could start to kind of have tools to help that get better.

Robin: You know, there were benefits too though, because I could sometimes guess what was going on with someone better, because you know how people hold themselves a certain way or move a certain way, and like I would start feeling off and ask more questions. Or like if they were really depressed and not telling you, like they'd be there for like a cold and I'd be like, "Are you doing okay?" Because I would start feeling so despondent and I'd be like, "Okay, what is going on here?" Because I would pick it up so badly and I learned over time, like, "Okay, if I'm feeling depressed, I need to check in with them." Or if I'm feeling anxious, I need to help them. Or, you know, which is one reason I like teaching because it's less intense physically. But it also felt kind of like a superpower in some ways, but also not a fun one. The kind that like hurts the person, so.

Jill: So it sounds like what you're describing as a word in nursing we use, and I'm sure you do as a doctor, empathy. Whenever you like feel what someone else is feeling, but it can be to almost such a high degree that it can be crippling or hurtful, you know, if you don't learn to kind of control that. I pick up on people's emotions like that if I'm in the same room, especially with them and can feel a lot of that as well. And so I can relate to that being something that you just have to work through and kind of get some breathing room sometimes. Yeah.

Robin: Well, I know that about you because we're so careful with each other that obviously we both know what that feels like to just be so, like we're both medical people, we're not sensitive, but we're sensitive to other people being sensitive.

Jill: Right, it's weird. It's like, we can do things, but yeah, if we feel like it's hurting someone or, you know, that was the issue that I had with, you know, wanting to go into vet school is just because, you know, I felt the animals, you know, their emotions, their pain, and I didn't feel like there was anything that, you know, I could do from my perspective as like I wanted to. And so that's why nursing was something easier in that regard.

Robin: Well, that's why we're such animal people now. And honestly, I think our animals are benefiting from that at this point.

Jill: So. True, that's true. Very true.

Robin: That's it for today. If you want to be a doctor or something else healthcare related, head over to docrobinschool.com/podcast for your goodies. It's docrobinschool.com and you'll get your goodies there.

Jill: Yeah, and don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. Thanks so much for watching.

Robin: Bye.

Jill: Bye, friends.