Faint

On my first day in Maternity, I attended a cesarean birth. After spending time with the mother and father getting them all prepped for what was to come, I scrubbed and masked and was in the O.R. watching the anesthetist put an epidural into the woman�s spine, when I started to feel a little light-headed and nauseous. I thought to my self: �Geez, I feel terrible. But I�m not squeamish! I�ve seen lots of gross stuff, and it�s never bothered me! I�m not going to faint! I never faint!�

After a few more minutes, I finally realized that I was indeed going to faint if I didn�t get that mask off. I started for the door, and just as I reached out for the handle, out I went: lurching forward, my face hit the wall and slid down to the floor! As I came to, the nurse was telling me to go out into the hall and sit on the floor against the cool wall, and not move until she came out. Mortified, I slunk out of the room and did as I was told.

As I sat there, wondering what on earth I was going to say to the poor mother when I went back in (if they let me back in!), the handsome young surgical resident began scrubbing in, and with the cockiest grin on his face, asked, �Break anything on the way down? Heh, heh, heh.�

Now, in my own defense, I had just begun taking some anti-TB medications (yes, for those of you who don�t yet know, I tested positive for TB the week before school began), which had completely killed my appetite, and I realized that I had not really eaten for the past three days. The combination of that and breathing into the surgical mask were just more than I could take on my first day at the hospital!

That�s my story, and I�m sticking to it.