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And why do American restaurants have signs in the restrooms exhorting emplyees to wash their hands after relieving themselves?
How did we get to a nation of germophobic sissies?
You can bet the Euros do it THEIR WAY, however they please and laugh at us uncultured Americans.
Seriously? Disease spread by feces include norovirus, hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, and polio. There are many more spread by blood borne pathogens, which are still available from inappropriate handwashing.
As for people being “wusses” in general, I had a dental surgery in Japan and they actually covered everything but my mouth with a drape so there so I wouldn’t get nervous because it was a dental school hospital and all of the dental students were watching. That was the standard practice at the university hospital for procedures. There are plenty of other countries that are concerned about people’s modesty.
I had a liver biopsy twice with only a local, which I think is insane.
I guess for some it doesn't hurt, I have a bad reaction both times... meaning requiring multiple doses of morphine and some percocet for good measure.
If I had to do that again, I would literally sit down and cry.
I can't imagine a liver biopsy NOT hurting. Looks as though they generally use a local anesthetic to numb the area before they insert the biopsy needle, but the sites describing this procedure state there can be pain afterwords ( love the euphemistic "discomfort" as they describe it).
Talking about liver biopsies and associated pain always reminds me of the time (would have been in the early 1970's) I was working in a hematology-oncology clinic, where the docs saw mostly adult, but also some children. One of the patients was a little boy who had been diagnosed with an acute leukemia ( can't recall which type), around age 6, and they followed him till he died around age 11 or so. Anyway, "David" was a sweet, smart, engaging little boy who was endlessly curious and wanted to know how everything worked, what his blood cells looked like and how we figured out what his lab results were. He was brave through his many painful procedures, and always had a smile for the people he came to know at the hospital even when he wasn't feeling good.
Well, David learned that he was to have a liver biopsy, and he was scared spitless at the thought. I'd never seen this little boy cry until he was faced with the prospect of that liver biopsy. Everyone tried to reassure him, but there's only so much of that that remains credible. One of the residents working with us told David that a liver biopsy is less painful than the fingersticks we used to collect patients' blood for blood and platelet counts, and I guess that is the message that he hung onto before his biopsy.
On the day of the biopsy ((David had been admitted to the hospital for this and other tests, and his chemotherapy), we didn't see him but we all thought about him and prayed that it would go well. I didn't see him till maybe two weeks later when he came into the clinic for his bloodwork and checkup. I asked him how his liver biopsy had gone, and he responded that it "wasn't too bad". After I stuck his finger to get the blood we needed for the counts, he gave me a big smile and said, "You know what? Dr. (resident) was RIGHT!!!!" Meaning of course, about the fingerstick being more painful than the liver biopsy.
I was so glad to hear that he had not found the liver biopsy to be all that painful, especially with everything he had to go through, but I still have no doubt that it can be very painful, depending on the person.
And I sure hope you never have to undergo another one, Mikala.
It is stupid that someone would post a complaint about Americans not being nude for medical procedures or undergoing sedation if that's their preference. I don't understand what the issue here is.
For example, in Europe when getting a colonoscopy they don't knock you out, hell you don't even wear a gown, you do most everything without sedation and fully nude everywhere else. Only Americans are wimps and prudes about these kinds of things.
Suffering needlessly is hardly a sign of superiority, in fact, IMO, it is just the opposite.
I had a liver biopsy twice with only a local, which I think is insane.
I guess for some it doesn't hurt, I have a bad reaction both times... meaning requiring multiple doses of morphine and some percocet for good measure.
If I had to do that again, I would literally sit down and cry.
The wife of my best friend is facing this prospect in the UK, and he and I have been talking about the procedure.
From 1979 through the Eighties I had ten or twelve liver biopsies while living in the U.S.. That is a lot of experience, but it is also in terms of medical technology possibly ages old. Thus, I have been vague about my experiences, and I also wonder if the condition of the liver doesn't affect the degree of pain one feels.
I never had anything but a local all those times, and I wasn't offered anything else. But also they wanted me to breathe very deeply so my chest was expanded as much as possible and hold my breath, and if I had been under a general anesthetic I couldn't have done that....so maybe that's why only a local is used.
The local anesthetic was like getting a kiss from your executioner, sweet but meaningless. When the biopsy needle went in it was shoved hard, but immediately withdrawn. There is no way around it, you are stabbed with a coarse needle. Then he extruded the specimen from the needle into some solution. Mine looked like a grey worm....lousy condition, so maybe that accounted for the pain. And then, waltz me around again, Willy, we did it again immediately. There was no second "kiss" from the executioner, he just stabbed me. Another grey worm.
I had to stay in recovery for several hours, and the pain in my upper right chest and shoulder was very strong even after a shot of demerol perhaps.
None of the others were as painful, and I can recall that from year to year as the color of the sample got redder and redder the procedure hurt less.
There is a funny side to my experience. On the window ledge was a copy of The Hobbit, and I started trying to read it to take my mind off the pain. When I went back the next time The Hobbit was one of the books on the sill with the page turned down, so I read some more....and the next time and the next. I finished the freakin' Hobbit over the years in that recovery room of the NYU Medical Center.
But did you require a driver? That is what tells you something.
But I have to say that a lot of people who have never had a colonoscopy are just skeeved by the whole idea of it. Pain or not, they don't want any recollection of something going on "back there". THAT is silliness and prudishnessl Not what the OP said about wearing a gown or not - THAT was just pure trolling.
Women are champs about spreading their legs for doctors, so I can't imagine that that would be a problem for many of them. If something might hurt, though, I'll take the drugs.
you are a prude because you don't want to expose more of your private parts to doctor than necessary? why do you think they are called private parts and why do you believe the doctor wants to see more of them than is necessary for the procedure?
talka bout bizarre
I think you are fantasizing here and not sure it's something which needs shared on an open forum like this one.
I think those places are sort of chilly. My dentist used to give me a little blanket when I was going to be in the chair for a long time. I can't imagine being naked during a colonoscopy. Brrr.
But did you require a driver? That is what tells you something.
.
A driver was required but I'm pretty sure I could have rested at the hospital for an hour and then driven myself on to the restaurant, but what's the fun in that? It was more fun telling fart jokes with my husband and then going out to eat breakfast!
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