Sunday, September 17, 2006

Bazooka Story? You decide.

So anyway, a while back I did a post about stories. I have subsequently read some absolute stonkers from Molly and Spinsterella. Here is one of my medical school stories....

Picture the scene:
Histology laboratory 9am, about 50 med students slumped over their microscopes.
The elderly, boring lecturer informs us that this morning we were going to take swabs of the cells in our cheeks, stain the cells with various chemicals to see the cellular components and look at them under the microscope.
So we all got on with rubbing the inside of our mouths with cotton buds staining the cells and examining them. Meanwhile the lecturer drew a representation of what we should be seeing on the board. One girl sticks her hand up, 'sir there's a cell here that doesn't look like that.'
The lecturer strolls over and peers down her microscope....
'That, my dear, is a sperm!'
Cue sympathetic noises from her fellows....
Not sniggering, oh no, I'm mature , me.

This is what she saw......

7 comments:

Zig said...

go on admit it - it was you wasn't it? :)

herschelian said...

She didn't gargle or clean her teeth before class? eeugh!

Anonymous said...

Well, I assume sperm are fairly hygienic when freshly... harvested?

realdoc, I have been unable to post until now, but back on your medical post (where you got all cynical and angry in a rather fine way)I wanted to ask you where you stand on immunisation.

rel said...

realdoc,
Under the Microscope says: "that is a hilarious story!!!!!!!!"
rel

realdoc said...

ziggi: honestly it wasn't me.

herschelian: sperm are quite stubborn little buggers so she may well have cleaned her teeth

cello:I may be courting controversy here but I feel immunisation is one of the few things that we docs do that is worthwhile. The childhood immunisation programme was dealt a blow by the MMR scandal but if you are counting lives saved it would be hard to beat immunisation. When life is good it is easy to forget what it was like during the last polio epidemic in the 1950s when there were 1000s of people requiring ventilation and many died.

remiman: thank you, it's nice to share.

Anonymous said...

Oh, controversy is good. Maybe we'll have a good old debate when we meet up at the Convention. But I had always been told that doctors want everyone else to be immunised, just not their own children. Is that a little harsh?

I also think the short-term brain damage/autism scare is probably over-played. My suspicions about immunisation are more to do with the cocktails of chemicals and the long-term effect on the immune system.

realdoc said...

Cello both my children are fully immunized, in fact when the MMR scare broke I appeared as a poster girl in a national newspaper with the 2 kids to encourage people to get themselves immunized.(Friends in the media you see) The thing about immunization is that you do it for the greater good not for the individual. A no risk scenario is one where everyone except you is immunized. You then have no risk of catching the disease and don't have to face the remote but significant risks associated with the vaccine. The trouble is if more than 10% of the population take this view then 'herd immunity' is lost the disease resurfaces and can then mutate to infect the vaccinated population as well.
Looking forward to debating this further with you at the convention. It will have to be quite early in proceedings , though as I fear drink may be taken.