what surgery's have you had?

[Ebonrul]

Retinal Reattachment Surgery.

I used to compete as an amateur kickboxer when I was a freshman in college. At the time, I didn't appreciate the difference between someone who's fighting go get a colored piece of cloth or an approving nod from their teacher, and someone who's fighting to feed their family. While I technically won the fight, both retinas had become partially detached afterward. The "curtain began to fall" as the "screen" that covers the back of my eye started peeling away from the back of my eyeball. That monday I was in surgery.

I remember it because of the damage that was done, reattaching the retina was impossible using a laser. The retina hadn't detached cleanly, but was peeling away in shreds like a price tag. To fix this, they had to remove my eye from the socket, and use a cryo-wand to freeze the retina and shape it, then allow it to thaw/heal intact. Using lasers to reattach the retina would have caused so much scarring that the procedure would have been pointless.

Also, the procedure is performed under local anesthetic, like getting a cavity filled. This means I was awake the whole time for my eye surgery. I "saw" the doctor pull my eye from the socket (not much after that but blobs, but I saw the part that you don't want to see and I distinctly remember grabbing the arms of the chair as my field of vision suddenly "jumped" toward the ceiling) and remember almost all of the surgery.

Not really looking to trump that experience personally.

 

[MajorTomServo]

When I was born, I didn't have a hole in my wiener. They had to make one for me.

I'm really glad I don't remember that...

 

[Ebonrul]

Ground Control to Major Tom. You win.

 

[Cazza]

I've had surgery to add a shunt into my skull. (Lucky it hasn't failed. Shunts have a high failure rate.)

1 for an infected scrap as a kid. The odd cavity. I'll gotten away without surgery now for years so I count myself lucky.

 

[Lliustril]

Nothing major here, worst would be having my tonsils removed when I was 14. Apparently my throat was so badly scared from having tonsillitis so many times that they had issues removing them. The hole (where they came from?) was fun, I could stick my finger in it, once it stopped freaking me out.

That also lead me to the discovery that morphine really knocks me out. I was in hospital for 3-4 days and I was awake for a grand total of 4 hours. But that's better than my partners, he woke up as he was going into surgery (thankfully not during).

I've also had about half my baby teeth removed, which I refused to do unless they knocked me out first. For some reason very few of my baby teeth came out naturally. How ever some one made a boo-boo and I've got a gap were they must of pulled an adult tooth (next to my canine, toward the back, so not too visible). At about 16-17 they had to pull my canines (with-in a week of each other, I don't know why they weren't done at once)but that was just a local (I'd maned up lol (womaned up? lol (hehe spell check wants to correct to 'womanized')).

I haven't even had my wisdom teeth come through yet (I'm 21) but they do start to pop out to say hi every now and again. As in I teeth and the tops come out, then the go back. But I think I've got enough space to fit them, if they ever decide they want to stay out.

Smaller scale I've had the top of a finger reattached, but I suppose stitches don't count.

Also I should of had my nose realigned, but no one noticed it was broken (you'd think when a child gets hit in the nose and it bleeds you'd take her to the docs, just to check. But it seems not noticing that I've broken some thing is common with me. We I was about 10 I broke my toe, then walked 1km to the dairy and back (in barefeet)before I noticed it hurt. 3 different doctors, with 3 different answers. Turns out it was a hairline fracture, but the noticed too late and the end of my toe now grows at an angle.

 

[Skeleon]

Only minor stuff, including tonsils, wisdom teeth and whatnot, nothing major. Never had a broken bone as far as I know, either.

 

[Skeleon]

Spinal tap, if that counts. Also, what's up with removing wisdom teeth? Is that a First World thing?

They can mess up your jaw/the arrangement of your teeth when they are in a wonky position, that's usually why they are removed. They can push into your other teeth sideways, damaging them. They're superfluous for chewing but can cause quite a few problems, so removing them makes sense if they become symptomatic. Unfortunately it is quite a procedure in many cases.

 

[Siege_TF]

All 4 wisdom teeth at once, two had to be sliced out, localized freezing onry.

Circumcision. Medical reasons. None of my girlfriends have ever complained, so I'm not going to either.

Half my deltoid and all of my inner bicept were removed due to no-ncancerous tumours which were painful and restricting bloodflow. I cannot and will not be able to lift over twenty pounds with my right arm, but it's a small miracle that I can use it as well as I can, according to the specialist. Of course his other patients in the waiting room all looked to be over seventy five, compared to my eighteen, which might have had something to do with my drastic recovery. Still looks like I was mauled by a damn bear though (and makes for a better story).

 

[J Tyran]

I had a tracheotomy as part of intubation during a coma, lots of pipes and other things like dialysis and they had all the connections for a cardiopulmonary bypass on standby. Not sure exactly what else happened but I was falling to bits and the medical details get complicated.

 

[tseroff]

I had some surgery on my toe, which wasn't too bad. The crazy part was that I watched it. I had like four shots of some numbing agent (including one in the webbing, which didn't hurt but still makes me cringe) and then I got to watch the doc go to town on my big toe.

 

[rorororo]

You know what, I think may have won the thread.

My spine is partially titanium. Due to severe scoliosis, meaning that my spine was curved at about 65 degree in the middle, meant that I had to have surgery to straighten the spine out, and have titanium rods put in to keep it that way. I can no longer bend my spine at all.

Beat that.

Same, only I'm not sure what degree it was. It was, however, severe enough to warrant a surgery that involved inserting 2 titanium rods and the removal of ribs.

Besides that, I had a mole removed once, and that's about it.

Same. Spine surgery at 11. Two titanium bars, a couple dozen of screws, ribs shortened, two ernias removed. I can freely move though. The only lasting effect is that my torso never got to grow with the rest of me so I'm quite disproportionate - loooooonnnnng legs and arms. Not that bad though, I mean, it's better than being disproportionate in the opposite sense I guess.

 

[Dark5tar1]

You know what, I think may have won the thread.

My spine is partially titanium. Due to severe scoliosis, meaning that my spine was curved at about 65 degree in the middle, meant that I had to have surgery to straighten the spine out, and have titanium rods put in to keep it that way. I can no longer bend my spine at all.

Beat that.

Same, only I'm not sure what degree it was. It was, however, severe enough to warrant a surgery that involved inserting 2 titanium rods and the removal of ribs.

Besides that, I had a mole removed once, and that's about it.

Same. Spine surgery at 11. Two titanium bars, a couple dozen of screws, ribs shortened, two ernias removed. I can freely move though. The only lasting effect is that my torso never got to grow with the rest of me so I'm quite disproportionate - loooooonnnnng legs and arms. Not that bad though, I mean, it's better than being disproportionate in the opposite sense I guess.

I also recently had surgery for scoliosis. Has only been 6 months but trying to bend

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I was A C-Section, so that counts. Didn't want to come out the normal way you say. Hipster since birth. Just after birth I had surgery done on my messed up ear, bot sure why to be honest. Not really relevant but I also have a piece of tarmac lodged in my head since I was a wee lad.

 

[Psykoma]

I'm getting braces put in on Tuesday in preparation for getting my jaw broken into pieces and re-set in a non-underbite formation next year..
I'll probably also have to have my wisdom teeth out before the jaw breaking surgery.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Not sure if Wisdom Teeth Removal counts as surgery, but I've had that.

Spoiler warning: it sucks. I went under because I don't want to be awake when the docs are doing sensitive, delicate work; I'll just twitch and struggle. When I came to, the procedure was over and I felt HORRIBLE.

I was so out of it I couldn't even stand. I needed help to get out of the dentist's office and for the rest of the day, I was loopy, my lips were sore, I threw up a lot, and I couldn't speak.

It was without a doubt one of the worst days of my life.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I got appendicitis once so that was worth a trip to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Fun fact, it's not advisable to drive while your fever is spiking and your sort of hallucinating because of said fever. Also parking is kinda off the cards too, apparently I sorta just opened the door, fell out of the car and crawled to the door.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I've had a couple teeth pulled, though, Praise the Sun, my wisdom teeth actually came in flawlessly, so I didn't need to have them removed.

 

[xDarc]

When I was 16, I was hit by a Ford Explorer that ran a red light on my bicycle. Miraculously, I walked away with just a couple of broken teeth and some scrapes. This was at the peak of physical fitness in my life. I am 5'6" and back then I weighed 135 lbs and could bench press 280. I was short, wide little wall of muscle.

She hit me in my right hip and I was twisting my torso to the right so I could put my hands out and protect my ribs. My hands left dents in her hood. She was going about 30. Then she hit the breaks and threw me a good 20 feet.

I never lost consciousness, as soon as I hit the ground I jumped up and started screaming at her. Time slowed down and I had time enough to get real, real angry over what a stupid asshole would blatantly disregard a traffic signal. I made her cry. Some soccer mom late to pick up the kids. It took a full 60-90 seconds to feel any pain, and when I did my bones on my right side hurt so bad I thought they were broken, so I sat down and pushed on things to see if they moved wrong. They were fine.

At 19, I had some occasional pain in my low/back hip which I mostly ignored since it was so infrequent.

At 23, I was bending over to pick something up and I felt/heard a pop and immediately fell over with excruciating pain all down my left leg and in my back.

I stayed like that for 9 months while I tried chiropractors and talked to lawyers. It was too late to sue the driver they said. I had only asked her to buy me a new bike, pay to get the two teeth that broke fixed, and for the ambulance that came. I refused to go with them but they sent me a bill anyway. I went to the hospital by myself later to get xrays and they said nothing was broken.

I think in total, the lady cut a check for 2500. My back surgery costed 18,000. They said it was too long ago and it would not be able to be proven that it was her fault, but I know it's because where she hit me and my position that my disc basically fell out seven years later. Oh well, you move on. Guess I'm lucky she didn't kill me.

There was an angel watching out for me, but I guess he let my spine get injured to teach me some humility and that I was not indeed invincible after all. Seriously, there was this one guy who came out of nowhere. I just felt a hand on my shoulder and he asked me if I was ok and if I would be needing any more help. He said he saw the whole thing and it looked pretty nasty. I told him I was OK and looked away for a second, and when I looked back he had vanished. I have a photo of it in my mind, there was all this open space in the direction in which he left and he was not there.

Then a van pulled away from one of the pumps, and behind it I saw my dad pumping gas, so I completely forgot about the man who disappeared and limped over to him. He was like what are you doing here? And as I got closer, he could see the blood on my face and the scrapes, the look on his face. I told him the lady in the Explorer over there hit me. He ran over to the driver side window, leaned in and all I heard was "Why you run over my boy!?"

I laughed. He's an Italian immigrant and he speaka the how you say, the broken ah English.

Anyway, I'm coming up on 31 in a week here. I wake up pretty sore every morning but the stiffness clears up in about an hour. I really dread what it's going to feel like in the morning in another 10 or 20 years. I joke that I'm going to get an adamantium spine someday and be short and dangerous like Wolverine.

 

[Tiger King]

Retinal Reattachment Surgery.

I used to compete as an amateur kickboxer when I was a freshman in college. At the time, I didn't appreciate the difference between someone who's fighting go get a colored piece of cloth or an approving nod from their teacher, and someone who's fighting to feed their family. While I technically won the fight, both retinas had become partially detached afterward. The "curtain began to fall" as the "screen" that covers the back of my eye started peeling away from the back of my eyeball. That monday I was in surgery.

I remember it because of the damage that was done, reattaching the retina was impossible using a laser. The retina hadn't detached cleanly, but was peeling away in shreds like a price tag. To fix this, they had to remove my eye from the socket, and use a cryo-wand to freeze the retina and shape it, then allow it to thaw/heal intact. Using lasers to reattach the retina would have caused so much scarring that the procedure would have been pointless.

Also, the procedure is performed under local anesthetic, like getting a cavity filled. This means I was awake the whole time for my eye surgery. I "saw" the doctor pull my eye from the socket (not much after that but blobs, but I saw the part that you don't want to see and I distinctly remember grabbing the arms of the chair as my field of vision suddenly "jumped" toward the ceiling) and remember almost all of the surgery.

Not really looking to trump that experience personally.

That is INSANE!!!!
I hope your better now and I guess it's one hell of a story to tell!

 

[Tiger King]

When I was 16, I was hit by a Ford Explorer that ran a red light on my bicycle. Miraculously, I walked away with just a couple of broken teeth and some scrapes. This was at the peak of physical fitness in my life. I am 5'6" and back then I weighed 135 lbs and could bench press 280. I was short, wide little wall of muscle.

She hit me in my right hip and I was twisting my torso to the right so I could put my hands out and protect my ribs. My hands left dents in her hood. She was going about 30. Then she hit the breaks and threw me a good 20 feet.

I never lost consciousness, as soon as I hit the ground I jumped up and started screaming at her. Time slowed down and I had time enough to get real, real angry over what a stupid asshole would blatantly disregard a traffic signal. I made her cry. Some soccer mom late to pick up the kids. It took a full 60-90 seconds to feel any pain, and when I did my bones on my right side hurt so bad I thought they were broken, so I sat down and pushed on things to see if they moved wrong. They were fine.

At 19, I had some occasional pain in my low/back hip which I mostly ignored since it was so infrequent.

At 23, I was bending over to pick something up and I felt/heard a pop and immediately fell over with excruciating pain all down my left leg and in my back.

I stayed like that for 9 months while I tried chiropractors and talked to lawyers. It was too late to sue the driver they said. I had only asked her to buy me a new bike, pay to get the two teeth that broke fixed, and for the ambulance that came. I refused to go with them but they sent me a bill anyway. I went to the hospital by myself later to get xrays and they said nothing was broken.

I think in total, the lady cut a check for 2500. My back surgery costed 18,000. They said it was too long ago and it would not be able to be proven that it was her fault, but I know it's because where she hit me and my position that my disc basically fell out seven years later. Oh well, you move on. Guess I'm lucky she didn't kill me.

There was an angel watching out for me, but I guess he let my spine get injured to teach me some humility and that I was not indeed invincible after all. Seriously, there was this one guy who came out of nowhere. I just felt a hand on my shoulder and he asked me if I was ok and if I would be needing any more help. He said he saw the whole thing and it looked pretty nasty. I told him I was OK and looked away for a second, and when I looked back he had vanished. I have a photo of it in my mind, there was all this open space in the direction in which he left and he was not there.

Then a van pulled away from one of the pumps, and behind it I saw my dad pumping gas, so I completely forgot about the man who disappeared and limped over to him. He was like what are you doing here? And as I got closer, he could see the blood on my face and the scrapes, the look on his face. I told him the lady in the Explorer over there hit me. He ran over to the driver side window, leaned in and all I heard was "Why you run over my boy!?"

I laughed. He's an Italian immigrant and he speaka the how you say, the broken ah English.

Anyway, I'm coming up on 31 in a week here. I wake up pretty sore every morning but the stiffness clears up in about an hour. I really dread what it's going to feel like in the morning in another 10 or 20 years. I joke that I'm going to get an adamantium spine someday and be short and dangerous like Wolverine.

I'm sorry for your accident buddy, I'm guessing your American because you had to pay medical bills?
I know it's not much but I guess it could of been a lot worse.