Without modern day surgery would you be here today?

sports injuries don't count...

 

Never needed stitches or had a broken bone either....

Amazing feat considering I raced motocross as long as I did and the profession I am in......

I do however have plenty of aches and pains

 

The only broken bone for me is my nose after gettingn slugged. Other than that, zip.

BUT, BUCKEYE=?????????????

 

haha no, i drink water almost exclusively. I've had so many test done its not even funny. Only thing i've been told over and over is that its a genetic problem.

 

That's what prompted the thoraxic surgeon to do the emerg. exploratory surgery on me, Steve. He thought my appendix were about to rupture, and he removed them. My white blood count had skyrocketed, during the night (I was in the hospital, with severe abdominal pains). After he removed them, they learned (after dissecting) that there was nothing wrong with my appendix.

So, they cut me open (right down the stomach.....11" incision). They found my problem. I had an abcess from a single diverticuli that was inflamed. They ended up removing over 1/3 of my colon. Had the abcess ruptured, I would have likely been hospitalized for 6 months. My condition was caused by a fish bone I had ingested, that had punctured the wall of my colon (causing the abcess). After my surgery, I had a nasogastric tune in my stomach for 6 days. Hell. That was PURE hell. Imagine a tube the size of a pencil stuck down your nose, drawing fluids from your stomach. The tubing rubs the tissue inside your nose raw, quickly. It's enough to make a 30yr old man cry. I did.

This photo was taken, last summer. You can't see the scar (due to my arm being in the way). But you can see the beginnings of it.



I lost 30#'s in 8 days, and couldn't walk, upright, for weeks. I had strange things happen. I lost interest in some foods I'd loved, previously. And, I started craving foods I'd never eaten (I'd never eaten tomatos or onions, before my surgery. I craved them, afterwards....and still eat them, today). You never realize how much you use your stomach muscles to allow you to stand erect, until they cut through every layer. My brother (who's 5 yrs my senior) came to my room, while I was in recovery. He took one look at me....walked into the hallway and threw up.

Without modern surgery, I would have died a slow, painful death......poisoning myself to death, from the inside - out.

Never really thought about it in this way (what would have happened). I was a PGA teaching professional at the time. I still remember one of the members of the club, who was going in the next day (the day before I had to go to the hospital) for quadruple bypass surgery. He came by my room to see me, while he was there....and he was discharged 3 days before me.

Guess I should thank God, more often.

 

Wow Jeff, that is pretty nuts. Glad you are still around to tell the tale.

 

what if deer hunted us.

 

No...my appendix ruptured when I was in 5th grade. I did not know what was happening and told my grandparents my stomach hurt. It felt as if I had gas so they called the doctor and he recomended a laxative and for me to ball up with my arm across my stomach pushing the "gas" out. I had no further issues until the next day when my entire bodily suddenly became sore to the touch. My mother rushed me to the hospitol on New Years Eve and they immedialty took me in for surgery. Since the time between the rupture and the surgery was so great all the toxins were all through my body. They left the wound open and then it became infected...however, a few weeks later I was as good as new.

 

Damn Jeff, crazy **** caused by a fricking fish bone!! Unbelievable!! Glad It worked out.

 

I'd still be here, never had any type of surgery.........yet.

But my daughter wouldn't have made it without a few medical miracles. She was born 10 weeks premature and weighed 2lbs 5 ounces. She needed surgery the day after being born to clamp off a blood vessel so her blood would pass through her lungs.

She is 20 years old now and in perfect health.

 

i would be limping around on 2 bad knees had both ACL torn (left knee in 1989 and the right knee in 2006).

 

Lol. I've heard similar stories. I have an eerie feeling that I'm going to have to pass kidney stones My dad and both grandpaws both had them. They say it is man's equivalent of giving birth!

 

I would have died at birth. I was born without a nose bone and was also missing the left side of my forehead bone. Almost 24 years later and about 30 surgeries Im still here.

 

I'm glad you guys like some of my work...
I helped develop and manufacture many of the devices the Doctors use in the procedures mentioned throughout your stories. Not to mention others like the 1st generation mechanical heart. However the last decade has brought most of my work in all those neat little catheter systems that get shoved into your body for stone removal or stents / balloons or laser procedures along with hip/knee replacements and blood filters, etc...

Many hand-held devices for gall bladder removal, appendix removal, hernia repair, intestine repair, oh the list goes on, and in the wonderful world of plastics the technology is evolving further with implantable and bio-absorbable materials, which is my next quest...

Now if I could ONLY kill a Big Buck!!!

 

I would have died in 1969 if it wasn't for antivenin

 

I'd be limping too but I'd still have swimmers.

 

Never had any type of surgery.....

 

Minor-Appendix removed Jan/Feb 2000

Major-Took a .30-06 to the right bicep, missing my artery by 2mm Nov 4, 2000. Airlifted and spent 2.5 hours in surgery to replace the artery and remove schrapnel from my stomach.

Life is good today.

 

Dude, you got shot? Bet there's a story there.

 

Ben, I remember reading that story. It was pretty intense.