Dizzy during circumcision

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So today in my WBN clinical rotation I was lucky enough to be able to witness a circumcision....well I got dizzy and had to walk out. I had breakfast but it was at 6am before clinical and the procedure took place at 11am. I tried to convince myself that I was ok and just started moving around a bit to get the blood flowing but eventually I said "self you better stop trying to be mrs tough girl and leave before the doc has to stop what he's doing to pick you up off the floor". So I walk out and one of the nurses saw me and insisted I sit and have some water. she knew right away why I looked the way I did, apparently I was white as a ghost according to her. So my question is, is there anything I can do to help this situation other than eating closer to the time? We aren't really allowed to have food on the floor my only Time to eat is on lunch break and before I go in. When I was in a&p we went to cadaver labs where we saw full bodies, skinned bodies, and body parts and I was ok, got a little dizzy the first time but as I got moving around I was ok from that point on. Idk why that got to me so hard, and of course 2 of my partners in clinical are surgical techs and I felt SO stupid!

That exact same thing happened to me in nursing school. It was the most embarrassing thing that has happened to me because the doctor doing the circumcisions was my old pediatrician!! My episode was so bad they had to wheel me out... And they made me lay down in the c-section recovery area and eat crackers and drink orange juice. It was awful. I was so embarrassed... More than embarrassed, I was ashamed. I will never work in labor and delivery!! God bless all the wonderful lucky nurses who do. I once entertained the fantasy of working with children and babies but I know now I'm not cut out for it, and I adore my job in adult rehab.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Well of course I'm not but you know what I mean. They didn't have to wheel me out but when I walked out of the room the nurse could see it in my face and immediately she grabbed me and sat me in a chair. She wanted to "nurse" me but I insisted I was ok. And after a few minutes of sitting I was ok...scarred for life but ok.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

My best guess is your woozieness didn't have anything to do with what you did or didn't eat. Odds are you are a caring, compassionate individual with a high degree of empathy for others and a desire to relieve needless suffering whenever possible. Watching the barbaric mutilation of an innocent babys body without even the attempt of basic of anesthetic intervention- let alone a reasonably sound rational for this archaic ritual, I'm not surprised you became light headed. The good news: you will quickly become less sensitive to this type of patient suffering, the bad news: you will quickly become less sensitive to this type of patient suffering.

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Specializes in hospice.

Go suanna! Next year will mark the 18th anniversary of the federal law that protects girls from genital mutilation. That means that boys who were circumcised while that law was in place will start turning 18 and can sue, and they'll have a strong case for civil rights violations also, since had they been girls, cutting off parts of their genitals would have been federally illegal. I'm looking forward to the day no child is welcomed into the world with a knife.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

MODERATOR NOTE:

This is a thread about a student becoming woozy during a surgical procedure...

If you wish to discuss circumcision please start another thread.

This thread is NOT about circumcision. Further off topic posts will be deleted.

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