Yesterday the other volunteers and I learned a little something new.  We learned how to give subcutaneous injections of lidocaine and how to suture up a small wound.  Our resident med school student and soon to be doctor gave us a crash course because he will be leaving in about a week.  We began by making some small cuts through the skin of some volunteers.  They were some very brave and trusting oranges.  We then took some syringes and learned how to properly fill them with lidocaine, flicking all of the air bubbles to the top and pushing the air out of them with a little squirt of the lidocaine.  Yes just like in the movies.  We then practiced injecting into the skin of the orange around the wound without going all the way through.  The trick is to pull back before you push so you can be sure you aren't in a vein.  You only want to be injecting just below the skin and into the fat (hence the word subcutaneous).  So when you see that you aren't drawing in any orange juice, or blood, then you know its safe to inject.  We then practiced suturing up the wound and tying the proper knots which was simple enough.  Its kind of self explanatory if you've ever sewed anything in your life.  Its just a different kind of fabric.

Then came the fun part.  It was time to start "stabbing" each other with needles.  Mallory, our early childhood development fellow, made it sound so professional and non-violent.  We basically did the exact same thing we did with the oranges to each other, just without giving each other wounds first.  By the end a bunch of us had a bunch of numb spots on our forearms.  I volunteered to let Kelly inject me with a little lidocaine and as she was lining up her injection sight she decided to look me in the eye and tell me how nervous she was.  I told her she wasn't allowed to be nervous and that despite how much my trust had just been shaken that she'd do just fine.  I watched her practice on the orange and she didn't kill it so I figured I'd be fine.  Everything went as it should have and we were no worse for the wear.

It was fun to learn a little something new.  Not just how to perform minor procedures like those, but like who was afraid of needles and who not to trust with them.  If it came down to it I'd trust any of them, but I'm not so sure everyone would have trusted themselves.  Something about a small and very sharp object that pricks people the wrong way.


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