any of your going into surgery?

[asdasd12345]

if so have any of your cut anything up before, and is it fun? my guess is to be a surgeon you have to have a steady hand, so you obviously cant drink too much coffee on the job.

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[Odaroloc]

I do a lot of surgery on rats and mice (a lot of it is under a microscope) and a steady hand helps but is not as important as you might think...more than coffee, nervousness makes your hands shake but as it becomes more routine you shake much less...using diagnostic tools that are fragile and cost upwards of 15 grand is nerve racking as well as the possibility of messing up a study and wasting the animal. It is also very fun to perform surgery but I wouldnt describe it as "cutting things up." Also, intubation can be much more challenging than the actual surgery and I like acting as both surgeon and anesth.

 

[Alexander99]

If you do tend to get nervous, you can always take Diazepam (it's an anti-anxiety drug.) I heard snipers in the military use it to keep their hands from shaking and slow their heart rate to make their shots more accurate--each heartbeat makes your rifle jiggle a bit so you have to fire in between heartbeats and it's easier if your heart rate is lower. Why do I know all this? I have no clue.

 

[ms. a]

If you do tend to get nervous, you can always take Diazepam (it's an anti-anxiety drug.) I heard snipers in the military use it to keep their hands from shaking and slow their heart rate to make their shots more accurate--each heartbeat makes your rifle jiggle a bit so you have to fire in between heartbeats and it's easier if your heart rate is lower. Why do I know all this? I have no clue.

How do they do this?!?! Are they sitting there with one hand on their gun and one hand on their pulse or something? Or am I the only person that doesn't constantly know each time my heart beats?

 

[mison]

i have heard that the ski/shooters in the winter olympics take Ca2+ channel blockers to steady their hands and bodies so they can shoot

 

[TRUE]

How do they do this?!?! Are they sitting there with one hand on their gun and one hand on their pulse or something? Or am I the only person that doesn't constantly know each time my heart beats?

If you were a military sniper and your life depended on being as accurate as possible, you might pick up little tricks along the way...

 

[Alexander99]

How do they do this?!?! Are they sitting there with one hand on their gun and one hand on their pulse or something? Or am I the only person that doesn't constantly know each time my heart beats?

When you're looking through a sniper scope, it should be pretty obvious if you're aiming at something that's far away. You'll notice the crosshairs jiggle every second or so and it's your heartbeat that's causing that.

 

[doctorvenkman]

Actually, I think that drugs that slow your heart rate(like Diezapam) are illegal in shooting sports. That doesn't have anything to do with your hands shaking, but rather because elite marksmen shoot between heartbeats to minimize vibrations. With a slower heart rate it's easier to do this, and hence illegal.

 

[Alexander99]

Actually, I think that drugs that slow your heart rate(like Diezapam) are illegal in shooting sports. That doesn't have anything to do with your hands shaking, but rather because elite marksmen shoot between heartbeats to minimize vibrations. With a slower heart rate it's easier to do this, and hence illegal.

Yeah. I was just about to say, how's taking Diezapam during shooting sports any better than taking steroids for other professional sports? I heard even caffeine is illegal in a lot of olympic sports.

 

[southbelle]

If you do tend to get nervous, you can always take Diazepam (it's an anti-anxiety drug.) I heard snipers in the military use it to keep their hands from shaking and slow their heart rate to make their shots more accurate--each heartbeat makes your rifle jiggle a bit so you have to fire in between heartbeats and it's easier if your heart rate is lower. Why do I know all this? I have no clue.

Might be a good idea for the first or second time you have to do some surgeries, but people in their 20's and 30's shouldn't be on maintenance doses of benzos. Unless you want to be an addict of course. New guidelines are clear that such drugs should only be prescribed in short intervals and then discontinued.

 

[movingonup]

I have done lots of surgery, mainly on pigs in a trauma setting for research...
Surgery has almost nothing to do with steady hands (unles you are dealing with something like opthamology). I wouldn't even say that neurosurgeons necessarily NEED a steady hands. Routine definately helps. When you do anything for the first 5 times, your hands shake a little.
It has much more to do with stamina and being able to stand still with your back hunched over, or to hold back tension for another surgeon for up to 36 hours in the worst cases...
Also, its about not panicking and remaining calm, even in the crappiest of situations. You think that is easy at first... until you slip up and and the hole starts to fill with blood until you cant see what you are working on and the blood starts flowing over... it's sometimes hard not to panic when you realize that you really don't know what to do now. This is where the routine comes in.

and surgeons live on coffee . Every surgeon I met while in the Trauma lab where I did my research drank a hell of alot of coffee.

 

[Eraserhead]

Its funny most people tell me I'm a nervous person and that they don't see my doing hands-on stuff or anything physical at all really but my hands never shake for labs and dissections and stuff. I'm still considering surgery too... it seems really fun. I was amazed when the dean of admissions pulled out a pair of (I can't remember what they are called- shears? whatever you use to cut branches and locks off of lockers) and cut the chest of the cadaver open with them. I was like wow that's ****ing cool!

 

[deaftoan]

If you do tend to get nervous, you can always take Diazepam (it's an anti-anxiety drug.) I heard snipers in the military use it to keep their hands from shaking and slow their heart rate to make their shots more accurate--each heartbeat makes your rifle jiggle a bit so you have to fire in between heartbeats and it's easier if your heart rate is lower. Why do I know all this? I have no clue.

Let me nerd out for a minute and say that in metal gear solid, snake uses diazepam to steady his sniper shot

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Let me nerd out for a minute and say that in metal gear solid, snake uses diazepam to steady his sniper shot

You're damn right he does I hate Sniper Wolf

 

[Alexander99]

Let me nerd out for a minute and say that in metal gear solid, snake uses diazepam to steady his sniper shot

Couldn't he also bust out his pack of cigarettes and start smoking to get the same effect? I found that to be hilarious.

 

[indo]

"metal gear solid" wtf does that mean? Did they just take 3 words that sound tough and slam them together? How about "monster truck beatdown equipment"?

 

[mosfet]

You don't know "metal gear solid".....What kind of a college student are you??

 

[asdasd12345]

metal gear solid = one of the most popular video games of all time

 

[SoulRFlare]

It has much more to do with stamina and being able to stand still with your back hunched over, or to hold back tension for another surgeon for up to 36 hours in the worst cases...

and surgeons live on coffee . Every surgeon I met while in the Trauma lab where I did my research drank a hell of alot of coffee.

Is it true that surgeons develop hump-backs?

And does anyone else find it odd that this thread seems to compare surgeons to snipers? The implications are a bit disturbing...

Finally...since I already drink about 10 cups of coffee a day, I'm well on my way to becoming the finest surgeon since Sam Fischer...

 

[DoctorDoom]

Well, you do need relatively steady hands, but you also learn ways of bracing yourself and of doing things in such a way as to minimize fatigue... so you don't need to be rock steady generally. It's all technique.

I stay away from caffeine. Smoking actually increases tremor, contrary to popular belief.

 

[Alexander99]

Is it true that surgeons develop hump-backs?

And does anyone else find it odd that this thread seems to compare surgeons to snipers? The implications are a bit disturbing...

Finally...since I already drink about 10 cups of coffee a day, I'm well on my way to becoming the finest surgeon since Sam Fischer...

I see the parallels. Both professions require the use of specialized tools to do very precise work. I'd venture to say a good surgeon would make a good spiner and vica versa.

 

[underAchiever]

I see the parallels. Both professions require the use of specialized tools to do very precise work. I'd venture to say a good surgeon would make a good spiner and vica versa.

Our aikido instructor used to compare the samurai to the surgeon, they both perfect every detail of their technique with long years of training and prectice, they both use very sharp blades for slicing people, somtimes they obtain similar results.

 

[SoulRFlare]

*shrug* I guess i see a surgeon more like a musician.

 

[underAchiever]

*shrug* I guess i see a surgeon more like a musician.

Oh yeah, they both like to play with the G-string!

 

[u2psalm40]

yeah, but didn't some Americans get court-martialed b/c they bombed some canadian vehicles-- they're defense was that they were advised (in the military) to take some drugs to stay awake (everyone does it apparently) and then when it happened, the military completely left them in the cold.

off the top of my head, but it was a big story last year. it happened in afghanistan.

the moral of the story: drink it, take it, feel up, but don't screw up.

 

[oudoc08]

There are several studies about low dose propranolol prn for essential tremors in surgeons. I will likely use it as I have a very slight hand tremor all the time that gets worse in the early morning or when I get hungry.