I don't like fainting

I fainted yesterday. Here's the story:

I was invited back to the vet's office to help out as a receptionist while the vet and the nurse did an operation on a bunny rabbit to lance and drain a golf-ball-sized abscess on its jaw. They let me watch operations if there are no clients coming in the door and no phone calls. This was my third operation to watch - the first two were dog castrations.


***If you're likely to faint or barf while reading about a bit of blood or nastiness, stop reading now!

The vet and nurse worked together to give the bunny an injection in a vein in its ear to put it to sleep and the nurse put a gas mask over the bunny's face to keep it that way. They shaved the area around the abscess and put the drape over it, and then the vet started cutting with her scalpel through the skin and tissue toward the abscess. Eventually she got through and the pus started draining. Bunny pus is about the consistency of cheese whiz, and it's creamy colored with blood speckled in it. The vet squeezed as much of the pus out as she could, then poked around inside with Q-tips to get the last bits out. Remember, the abscess was about the size of a golf ball. She also washed inside with a anti-bacterial liquid. All this time, I was feeling fine. It never crossed my mind that I wasn't OK with any of it. I've never been the slightest bit queasy at the sight of blood or wounds, and I watched the other two operations with nary a blip. But the next thing the vet did was pull out a bit of the 'capsule' of tissue that had enclosed all the pus and she said, 'I think I want to get rid of this.'

That's when I said, 'I'm getting a bit lightheaded, I think I'll go upstairs,' and then got tunnel vision and the next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor. The whole thing took about 15 seconds. The nurse had thankfully been right there to catch me and let me down gently.

Thankfully the Koalaman was on his lunch break and was able to come pick me up and take me back home. I spent most of the rest of the day in bed, as I was feeling wobbly and queasy.

I felt so silly about the whole thing, but the nurse and the vet assured me that it's a very common thing with newbies and that it'll probably only happen once. Sounds like most people get used to surgeries happening in front of them and have no trouble at all. I hope that's the case for me!