shaky hands

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ironlung

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i have noticed that my hands shake sometimes. any suggestions as to what this might be attributed to? seeing as how i am a dental student, i need to solve this problem very soon...if possible.

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Tremors (shaky hands) can be caused by a number of things...

Does it happen to both hands, or just one hand only? What about your feet? Do your legs feel shaky too (like they are going to give away from you?)

Is this a constant thing? If not, how often does it occur and does it occur a particular time of day? Any loss of grip or changes in your strength? Any numbness/tingling? Do the tremors occur at rest or when you try to do something (like lift something)?

Any changes in your vision?

Loss of balance or difficulty balancing?

Dizziness/weakness?

Any sweating/diaphoresis?

History of high blood pressure?

Palpitations, heart racing away, severe heat intolerance, or weight loss?

Anything you can do to relieve them (e.g., does eating help with them)?

Some of the things to be concerned about include:
- CNS tumors/conditions
- hyperthyroidism
- pheochromocytomas
- hypoglycemic episodes

After all that's ruled out, you may be considered to have benign tremors. Usually it's treated with a beta blocker (propranolol usually, provided you don't have a history of asthma).
 
Everyone's hands shake some. As one of my attendings told me, "I don't care if your hands shake, just don't let me see it." What he was referring to is that there are methods out there to decrease the "shakes". Besides the obvious of avoiding caffeine, alcohol, etc. try to support your hands whenever you can...now I don't know its done in dentistry, but in general surgery I rest my hands on the patient's body, my attending's hands, etc. - anything that doesn't leave my hands dangling in the air.

I'm sure some of your attendings have similar tricks they use.
 
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How much caffeine do you drink?
 
I don't think that coffee is the problem here. My hands used to shake as well. Then I stopped doing crack. Now, only my nose bleeds sometimes, without warning.
 
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bumping up an ancient thread, since I finally discovered the wonders of the search function...

So today was my second day ever scrubbing in for a surgery. The first day was not so bad...my job was mostly snipping sutures, suctioning smoke, a little light retracting. But today the surgery was much more about holding things in place with more force for (what felt like) long periods of time (though the surgery was only 3 hours or so total).

I was fine and steady-handed for a while, until the fatigue set in...and I tried every trick in terms of bracing my elbows against my hips, resting my arm on the patient when possible (though of course that was not usually the angle at which the surgeon wanted the retractor!), even asking to switch hands once when one was more tired than the other.

So long story short, I was shaking pretty badly at times...very delicate procedure...I held my breath and held on tight whenever a suture was being placed. And no one said anything (oh wait, the scrub tech asked if I was OK!)...but the surgeon at least once held an instrument on top of my retractor to steady it...and I think the resident took over some of the retracting I would have been doing otherwise.

So is there anything to do? Talk to anyone on the team about it, or bad idea? (Problem is, I have a strong feeling the general fatigue may be at least partly due to a medical condition...but I haven't mentioned that to anyone and don't want to use it as an excuse...and as of now, there's nothing I can do about it...)
 
My hands shake when I used to do procedures, even setting up lines, venepunctures...then I realised it was because I was worried how I would do and that I might have to poke the patient more than once etc, all these negative thoughts..once I overcame this and did my procedures without thinking too much, I got more confidence and the shaking stopped:thumbup:
 
Me too. I used to shake a lot when I sutured (made a post about that one), but when I figured out that it was just nerves, I relaxed a bit and stopped shaking. Oddly enough, I never shook when making an incision or cutting/burning/tieing anything.
 
Oh, a bit more..this may sound a bit mean, but it'll help..although you're dealing with a REAL patient, it helps to THINK that your patient's a plastic practice model.

And for sharing purposes, one of the guys I know has shaky hands cos he masturbates too much..that's the "underlying" cause/risk factor:p
 
LOL. I just tell myself that a) I know what I'm doing, and b) if I screw up, it's fixable (usually).
 
Oh, a bit more..this may sound a bit mean, but it'll help..although you're dealing with a REAL patient, it helps to THINK that your patient's a plastic practice model.

And for sharing purposes, one of the guys I know has shaky hands cos he masturbates too much..that's the "underlying" cause/risk factor:p

But I'm not particularly nervous...I just get tired. I don't even shake while cutting sutures or (learning to) suture quite so much, since it doesn't take any muscle really...it's when I'm retracting for a while that things start up...and usually someone else then is suturing or doing some other delicate work, so it would probably be better for me to be still! At one point, my arms got so tired from retracting they started shaking even when I was just holding them folded across my chest and watching...(probably cause some resident noticed and took the retractor away from me!)
 
But I'm not particularly nervous...I just get tired. I don't even shake while cutting sutures or (learning to) suture quite so much, since it doesn't take any muscle really...it's when I'm retracting for a while that things start up...and usually someone else then is suturing or doing some other delicate work, so it would probably be better for me to be still! At one point, my arms got so tired from retracting they started shaking even when I was just holding them folded across my chest and watching...(probably cause some resident noticed and took the retractor away from me!)

Then that is perfectly normal. Try carrying heavy boxes or hold a weight in a static position for an hour or less..your hands are bound to be shaky with anything you do after that
 
Then that is perfectly normal. Try carrying heavy boxes or hold a weight in a static position for an hour or less..your hands are bound to be shaky with anything you do after that

Yeah, I guess so. It just seems like it happens to me a lot sooner, with much less work, than it really "should"...I asked one or two of my friends on this rotation, also not-so-hefty females, if they have this problem during the surgeries we're doing now, and they said no. But what can you do, I guess...
 
Yeah, I guess so. It just seems like it happens to me a lot sooner, with much less work, than it really "should"...I asked one or two of my friends on this rotation, also not-so-hefty females, if they have this problem during the surgeries we're doing now, and they said no. But what can you do, I guess...

It is also possible that between not having muscles used to holding retractors; you could be holding the retractors the wrong way - and inefficiently using up your strength. During my first few surgeries I was out-retracted by a tiny female scrub techs because I was tiring too fast.

It also helped to be used to the normal procedure of the operation that is being performed. You might be getting even more tense because you don't know what is coming next.
 
Yeah, I guess so. It just seems like it happens to me a lot sooner, with much less work, than it really "should"...I asked one or two of my friends on this rotation, also not-so-hefty females, if they have this problem during the surgeries we're doing now, and they said no. But what can you do, I guess...

From experience, you don't have to believe them, medical students and doctors are some of the worse in admitting their flaws. It tires me that people rather say that they've done a procedure heaps of times when they have actually done it one or twice, and then screw up, and I've to clean up after them..*****s..
 
i know that this site is meant for doctors, so....sorry but i have a problem. i'm only 14 and i am now entering my 3rd year of secondary school, junior cert year! i want to be a surgeon, and i think i would be a good one..... i got 100 this year in my end of year science:D. anyway, to the point, i noticed that i have quite shaky hands. i have asthma so i was wondering would the treatment for this be giving me shaky hands.... because there are like steroids and things in inhalers. this may not seam important to all of you but i have to decide soon what subjects to drop soon in school and i want to know if, is there any point attempting to be a surgeon with shaky hands.... or is there a cure.... please reply to this.... thank you
 
i know that this site is meant for doctors, so....sorry but i have a problem. i'm only 14 and i am now entering my 3rd year of secondary school, junior cert year! i want to be a surgeon, and i think i would be a good one..... i got 100 this year in my end of year science:D. anyway, to the point, i noticed that i have quite shaky hands. i have asthma so i was wondering would the treatment for this be giving me shaky hands.... because there are like steroids and things in inhalers. this may not seam important to all of you but i have to decide soon what subjects to drop soon in school and i want to know if, is there any point attempting to be a surgeon with shaky hands.... or is there a cure.... please reply to this.... thank you

* You should ask your doctor / pulmonologist. They will know better than we will. Plus, he/she can switch your medications if possible.

What are you taking anyway? Albuterol? Albuterol would probably cause a tremor.
 
Third Year? Junior Cert? Must be Irish.
1. Decide what you want to do in College, I'm three years in and don't know whether Medicine or Surgery is for me yet.

2. See a doctor about your tremor, it doesn't have to make your decisions for you. Most likely it is treatable.

3. If you are interested in Medicine I assume you're interested in science so take Biology, Chemistry and Physics if possible.

My Leaving Cert Recommendations:

1.Irish
2.English
3.Maths
4.Another Language (Absolutely required for ANY NUI college so that's Surgeon's, UCD, UCC, UCG)
5.Biology (Very easy A1, interesting)
6.Chemistry (V Helpful for 1st year in Medicine)
Some other subject that's easy to get an A1 and you enjoy

NB: AS LONG AS YOU HAVE IRISH + A LANGUAGE + 2 SCIENCE YOU CAN DO ANY COURSE AT THIRD LEVEL.

To the non Irish, I apologise for hijacking the thread.

To the OP, good luck, 570 points is hard to achieve.
 
reviving an ancient thread - was wondering if there is anymore advice out there for third year med students new to the surgery rotation that have shaky hands from fatigue. I start to shake badly after holding up retractors and the such for > 15 minutes...I don't know how things are going to work out for procedures over 30 minutes :/

Any advice? Any strengthening exercises or vitamin/supplements anyone recommends. I take a multivitamin...doesn't seem to help the issue though.
 
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