<p>Hey all, so like the the title implies i'm considering med school, but have a small problem with dealing with "blood and guts".</p>
<p>Does or has anyone else had this problem? what did you do about it? should I just forget about going to med school totally?</p>
<p>I think you grow out of it to some extent... anatomy is pretty much the only blood and guts course in the first year, unless you consider drawing blood or taking blood pressure to be too much. I was grossed out in the cadaver lab at first as well- but when you're in there every day, the effect definitely diminishes. Now I can talk about abscesses while I'm eating cream of broccoli soup... :)</p>
<p>That said, you might want to try and put some time in at a hospital or other place where you'll be exposed to the nastier functions of the human body and hopefully increase your tolerance. If after doing that a little bit you still faint or retch, maybe you should reconsider, but in my experience constant exposure lets most people get over body fluid issues.</p>
<p>Honestly, it's not drawing blood, or vomit and other bodily functions; it's things like skin cutting and organs and things of that nature.</p>
<p>I think what I said still holds... aside from plebotomy, you won't be doing much of anything on a live patient until much later on, and in anatomy, you'll be overstimulated to the point that it won't effect you that much after the first couple weeks. And to be completely honest, it gives most people the heeby-jeebies at first. Don't let that stop you if it's something you're seriously interested in.</p>
<p>My Freshman year of college, a few third year med students came to this premed club at my school and spoke to us, and one of them said he was very squeamish at first and even fainted a couple of times but eventually got used to it. Don't let blood and guts deter you.</p>
<p>I used to think I was a bit squeamish. What I've come to realize is that while I can get mentally grossed out - "Did she just stick her (gloved) FINGER into his surgical wound to get the pus to drain?!" - physically, I'm okay with things.</p>
<p>If the smell of vomit, urine, or blood makes you want to vomit or faint, I might be concerned, but otherwise, your curiosity takes over and you forget that you're supposed to be squealing in fright or disgust.</p>
<p>You do get used to it to a certain extent, but your third-year surgery rotation is going to be a lot more difficult than gross anatomy.</p>
<p>How about dealing with people who are in extreme pain, etc.? I intend to start med school next fall with plans to do endocrinology to work with diabetic patients (I have had type I for 20 years). I know I can deal with a dead cadaver, probably even a surgery - I’ve sat in on a couple. There, the patient is not presenting any distress. However, I’m petrified of the thought of rotating through the ER and dealing with someone coming in, in extreme pain, yelling, squirting blood, etc. How do you deal with that?! I get the vasovagal response from seeing people in pain in movies!</p>
<p>RJH</p>
<p>You might want to consider pediatrics. It’s not going to offer any respite from seeing patients in distress, but perhaps the idea of a crying child is less intimidating. You’ll still have to rotate through the ER, the NICU and PICU, so it’s inevitable, but there is overall less trauma (statistically). Given your personal experience, I think you could really have a significant impact with your diabetic patients if you did Peds Endo.</p>
<p>I have a kind of similar problem to OP, I am completely fine with blood, guts, and organs, the only thing is that I am slightly grossed out by vomit and urine and I am very grossed out by stool. How often do you have to deal with these things and is it a big part in med school?</p>
<p>Your stomach will harden. As will RJH’s empathy ;).</p>
<p>There’s a definite difference between something that makes you go “ew” and something that turns your stomach and makes you start sweating and feeling like you’re going to pass out. The majority of icky things fall into the former category, particularly when it’s 3AM and your resident has told you that after you do or examine something horrible you can go up to sleep until you have to get up at 5 for pre-rounding.</p>
<p>And for the vast, vast majority of gross things it helps to regularly remind yourself that clothes are washable, that you are washable, and that gloves exist for a reason. I found anatomy particularly useful to instill the “I can touch anything as long as I’m wearing gloves” philosophy.</p>