Too Squeamish

What profession do you admire most and why?

There are a lot of professions that are worthy of admiration. Actually, I’d go as far as saying all jobs are worthy of admiration. Just the fact that there are people who work those jobs means that there’s something good about them.

For me personally though, I admire those in the medical profession the most. They do things daily that I know I can’t do. I can’t do them because it makes me squeamish. Like, in a very physical reaction kind of way. I can’t look at blood. I can’t fathom the idea of treating someone who is bleeding, or who needs some other procedure done. Who am I kidding? I can’t even listen to people talk about something being done. The reaction I get is hard to describe. It kind of feels like I’m being tickled…on the inside. It’s a literal internal cringe feeling. I’m serious about not being able to listen to it. When I was at my knitting camp last summer, I remember listening to a friend talk about the foot surgery she had just had. I was very physically uncomfortable listening to her. And she wasn’t even going into graphic detail! Just a very general description of what the doctor did.

What’s crazy, is that I was absolutely not always like this. I remember when I was a kid The Learning Channel (now, simply TLC) used to show surgeries late at night. Yes, surgeries. I would sit in my living room glued to the big tv on the swivel base that sat on the floor. My parents had already gone to bed, but I knew my dad was watching the same thing in their bedroom because we would talk about it the next day. That absolutely never bothered me. I think the one where they did a face lift made me a little squeamish. I could also watch horror movies all day every day. That was up until after high school. I tapered off with the gross movies after that. Now, I’m pretty sure I can’t handle watching any of them.

I don’t know why it has all changed, but it has. When I was a teacher, I couldn’t even handle the little kids coming up to me to show me they had lost a tooth. Because they would smile at me with that big smile that showed the space where their tooth had come out and there was always a little bit of bloody gum showing. Always had to close my eyes and point them where to go while I told them what to do.

With all of that said, medical professionals have my utmost respect and admiration. They are saving lives and healing people in ways that I know I would never be able to. EMS workers especially blow my mind. They arrive to some truly horrifying scenes. They are the first ones to try and save someone’s life. That’s a lot of pressure!

If you work in the medical field, or have in the past, THANK YOU!