The Nerve Stimulator

So I was in the theatre another day with an anaesthetic doctor. The doctor was a very enthusiastic and informative teacher. He was good looking too, but of course that's not a huge concern for me.

This is a rather informal kind of learning environment, so we kind of just touch on random topics about anesthesia as the doctor goes on doing his stuff. That patient in the theatre was having an appendicectomy (removal of appendix in appendicitis), and he was given a general anaesthesia together with muscle relaxant to aid the operation. The muscle relaxant works by paralysing all skeletal muscles in the body, but there is one problem: they could wear off. So how do you tell when to top up some muscle relaxant? There is a very simple trick they use - they shock the nerves and look at the muscles jerk in response to the electric pulses. In this particular case, the doctor attached the wire next to the patient's right eye, and the eye muscle flickered when the electric was delivered.

As I was watching the doctor shock the patient's eye, curiosity had the better of me.

Me: "Just wondering, if you do this on a conscious patient, will they hurt?"

Doctor: "What do you think? Do you want to try?"

Doctor: * Take the wire off the patient, and attach it to my right forearm *

Nerve Stimulator: * TICK TICK TICK TICK *

OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH. It hurts. Thank you doc.