I do not remember the first surgery I had. I was still a red cheeked, blue eyed, tiny infant that had a mind to young to remember the operation. The memories I have from the second one, however, are still fresh in my mind. What seemed to last only minutes, lasted for hours, and I progressed through various feelings, thoughts, and expectations. While waiting for the nurse, in the ocean blue scrubs, to enter the room, I felt many different feelings. I was excited at experiencing something new, like a child that rode a bike for the first time. I also felt slight terror, which hit me with the force of a small hurricane, I knew that something, anything, could go wrong. The anticipation of the moment when the calming drug, injected by the nurse with a pleasant smile, effects my nervous body, calming me down and causing a fog of sleep to cover me. My blood rushed throughout my veins and carried the drug through my nervous body, calmed me down and caused me to lose consciousness. …show more content…
As I am looked at my left arm, while it was being sterilized by the operating room nurse, I tried to move my hand with no result. I came to realize that my mind still believed that my arm is still resting upon my stomach. I shut my eyes and focused on the phantom arm, managing to move it ever so slightly in my mind. It seemed I had experienced something alike to the phantom limb phenomenon that so many amputee victims live with daily. My mind believed it still had control over my completely numb arm,and expected the limb to behave as if it still had
Many amputees suffer from phantom limb, and phantom pain. Phantom limb can be described as the sensation of still having a certain body part and is moving accordingly (e.g. arm or leg) after the extremity has been amputated. People who experience phantom limb usually experience phantom pain, which is when the nerves at the end of amputated area cause pain or when a phantom limb seems stuck in an awkward or painful position. Ramachandran is a leading researcher in the field of phantom pain, and has done much research on mirror therapy and mirror neurons. On the other had Raffin shows research on phantom pain as well but in relation to motor imagery. Mirror therapy and motor imagery have both proven to be affective, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Dr. Ramachandran also sees patients with phantom-limb syndrome. Derek and James both have had their arms amputated. In Derek’s case, when he would shave the left side of his cheek, he would feel a tingling pain in his phantom limb. Dr. Ramachandran concluded that the body is mapped out on the brain. This mapping occurs in our infancy, so in the case of an amputation in adulthood part of the brain is still designated to receive input from the specific part of the body. Derek’s brain is no longer receiving input from his missing limb, and the brain is “hungry” for this input, so its neighboring receptor, the one for the face that is still receiving input, has invaded the space allocated for the missing hand. When...
Many medical operations are performed everyday, and sometimes they can change a person’s life forever. They can alter the way a person thinks or their personality traits.
You wake up in a hospital bed, scared, confused, and attached to a network of tubes and beeping equipment. After doctors assault you with a barrage of questions and tests, your family emerges from the sea of unfamiliar faces surrounding you and explains what has happened; you have had a stroke in the right half of your brain, and you are at least temporarily paralyzed on your left side. You wiggle your left toes to test yourself; everything seems normal. You lift your left arm to show your family that you are obviously not paralyzed. However, this demonstration does not elicit the happy response you expect; it only causes your children to exchange worried glances with the doctors. No matter how many times you attempt to demonstrate movement in the left half of your body, the roomful of people insists that you are paralyzed. And you are, you just do not know it. How is this possible? You are suffering from anosognosia, a condition in which an ill patient is unaware of her own illness or the deficits resulting from her illness (1).
Often times, I continue to have vivid flashbacks of the day my father came home from his first major surgery. I can precisely remember the slim plastic tubes protruding from my father’s neck connected to a small bottle collecting the accumulating drops of blood. I was
I’m actually kind of shocked I could write about recovery because it is a topic with a special meaning to myself. But, I found it easier to write about my own experience with a negative event this time, and I believe it is because I grew as a writer. I saw the value the personal testimony adds to a piece, and thus I could add my own story.
I had just finished facing my fears watching the metallic needle slip so seamlessly under my skin into the veins of my nervous, clammy hand. Hugging my Mom like it could have been the last time I saw her, seeing my dad's face stern and worried. I wheeled down the hall into this operating room, white was all I saw, a bed in the middle for the surgery to go down. As I lay on the bed waiting to be put under I remember seeing the blue masks of the people to be operating on me, I had to put all my trust in them, trusting someone you seen for less than 5 seconds with your life. Absolutely terrifying. The nurse slipping the fluid into my IV as I lay on my back looking up at the white ceiling, this cold sensations rushed over me. Then suddenly, I was out.
One of the last things that surprised me, which is a little more serious is the fact that the doctor could only do one surgery at a time. As a parent, I would be so stressed out over a matter of two days rather than one. Another thing that surprised me about the surgery was the fact that it took them about a yea...
I had my surgery. Luckily everything turned out great. I had bad points in the beginning. I wasn’t able to walk talk especially laugh. My chest would hurt when I would even breathe. It took a while for this whole situation to heal. My life after this was normal. I didn’t live a bad child hood or anything like that. My whole child hood got into a different perspective. I actually got out and played with all the other children. I enjoyed my child hood years.
For example, phantom pain is a well-known phenomenon in medicine. When people lose a limb, they will often feel painful spasms in parts that no longer exist. Although neuroscience is still developing, scientists assume sensory conflict is responsible for this phenomenon (Blakeslee, 1995b). The brain remembers the nerves going to the missing limb and their previous function, so it can issue orders through those nerves. However, the nerves will not get feedback from the muscles in the non-existent limb, so the brain stops the movement forcibly (Blakeslee, 1995b). Over time, the brain makes new nervous pathways and adapts to the new geography of the body (Blakeslee, 1995b), so the person's perception changes and phantom pain no longer persists.
When I awoke after the surgery, the nurses told me I had a beautiful baby girl. I began crying and I told the nurses I was not crying because I was sad, but I was crying tears of joy as I knew Dee had made to heaven.
What surprised me the most was that I was in surgery that I found the most enjoyment, the most satisfaction. During every day of my rotation I went home exhausted, but happy. Sure there were long days observing and helping in the operating room and changing dressings on the floor, but I was happy doing it. I went home feeling like I accomplished something, that what I did mattered, that I had help improve my patient’s quality of
Paramedics squeeze my arms, staining their gloves a deep red. Doctors and nurses scream at each other as they run across the hallways wheeling me into the operating theatre. I look over to my wrists as clear fluids begin their journey into my veins. My heart is in my throat, my pulse is echoing throughout the room, my limbs are quivering, and my lungs are screaming. Nurses force plastic tubes up my nose, as jets of cold air enter my sinuses, giving me relief. Inkblots dance before my eyes like a symphony of lights. A sudden sleepiness overcomes me and slowly my vision dims.
When I was young, I wasn’t exactly excited about getting a job. Sure, it would be a good way to meet some new people and learn about how the real world worked, but in the end, it was mostly about having some extra money. Having to ask family for to buy me the next new video game or graphic novel didn’t always feel good. I knew that when I buy something with my own money, I would feel proud. I applied to a few of jobs, and when I finally got the email telling me that I had an interview, a little nervous.
My first job came with many other firsts in my life - the first time losing the trust of my parents, my first time questioning my own judgement, and my first time being exposed to the real world. I grew up very sheltered. I am an only child, my parents are very religious muslim immigrants, and I was fortunate enough to be born a girl. Naturally, I have always had many restrictions placed on me. After begging with them for months, my parents finally, but reluctantly let me apply to a few nearby establishments.