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“Surgeons: What Weird Facts Do You Know About The Human Body That You Don’t Share With Anybody?”
The human body is absolutely incredible. And even when you think you know everything there is to know about biology and anatomy, there’s always something that is bound to surprise you. Though, not all surprises are pleasant, and some are downright bizarre.
In a fascinating thread on AskReddit, some surgeons opened up about the weirdest facts they know about the human body. It’s the kind of stuff they usually don’t share with anyone. We’ve collected their most intriguing and educational insights to share with you.
Warning: some of these facts can be a bit disturbing and make you queasy. Make sure you’re not eating or drinking anything as you scroll down.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
There aren't many occasions I get to share this.
A colostomy is when the intestines are hooked to an open port on the skin, bypassing some portion of the lower digestive tract. There's a lot of reasons this might need to be done, and for shorter or longer durations.
Some people have colostomy bags for years, and this is where things can get very interesting. You see, your r****m produces mucus to help smooth your movements along. Even if there's no passengers on the train, your body keeps greasing those tracks (I don't know anything about trains).
And since there's nothing to move the mucus, it just kinda hangs out. Sometimes for years. Sometimes for decades.
And in that time, it becomes something like a human pearl. By roughly the same mechanisms that pearls are formed in oysters. They can be very uncomfortable for patients depending on their size and location, its not a super uncommon problem and its fixable.
I've seen two that were roughly the size of baseballs. Those two flew completely under the radar until we tried to hook the plumbing back up, no pain or discomfort.
One of them I saw cut open, it looked like a jawbreaker with layer upon layer of what in the f**k. They're dense, hefty, with a little give near the skin.
So yeah, humans can make pearls.
Lost Panda 6 months ago
Can we talk about how the picture has a pearl to the lady's mouth... and we are talking about pearls coming from the lower intestine...
Bob Brooce 6 months ago
It's because you check to see if a pearl is real by rubbing it against you teeth, and there's zero chance that BP staff gave even the briefest thought to finding a picture of a butt pearl.
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Luke Branwen 6 months ago
DON'T let the rich know. There'd absolutely be a "human pearl" fad among billionaires if they knew.
TheElderNom 6 months ago
Yeah, I'm gonna agree on not knowing stuff about trains. Greasing the track would be very bad. But a very interesting fact!
RELATED:
#2
It's not exactly unknown fact , but ...
The brain can shift during surgery.
Even when the skull is fixed in place, the brain is soft and mobile—almost like firm tofu.
The brain has no pain receptors. Although it processes pain signals from other parts of the body, the brain itself cannot feel pain.
That’s why during certain brain surgeries (like awake craniotomies), patients can be fully conscious without feeling pain—even while their skulls are open and brain tissue is being stimulated or removed.
I have most profound conversations with people while I am picking their brains. Literally. I also get a lot of "last confessions " during these surgeries, and it's definitely awkward a bit when I have to meet their spouses or other family members 😂
But probably my most interesting experience was when I heard full on Vivaldi Winter during surgery played by the patient. It turns out he was a professional violinist from Austria. It was brilliant.
Funny experience was when an elderly lady who literally was undergoing life saving surgery shaded me for my life choices - because operating room is no place for a proper lady and I should have babies. She was brilliant - she was so keen on her opinion even while I was the one operating on her 😂😂
The brain pulsates in sync with your heartbeat.
It's a rhythmic, constant movement - it's actually BEAUTIFUL.
Real brain tissue is softer, more fragile, and surprisingly watery. It can be torn or injured just by suction or light pressure.
But what I admire and am astonished the most is that
every person’s brain is wired differently. Actual locations of speech, movement, or memory can vary person to person. That's why we do brain mapping during surgeries. It's pretty cool , like exploring unknown... And shows how unique humans are.
Bob Brooce 6 months ago
Well, that gave an entirely new meaning to "let me pick your brain for a bit".
Philly Bob 6 months ago
They couldn't pick my brain. Those crops failed a long time ago!
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Samantha H 6 months ago
I had Brain Surgery for an un ruptured Aneurysm, I found it terrifying. The Surgeon did an absolutely amazing job (it involved cutting a piece out of my Skull then replacing it) Within a few weeks I was back at work. Massive respect to these wonderful Surgeons.
Billo66 6 months ago
What fascinates me is after an injury, how it can just form new pathways, new networks and bypass the injury sometimes. And for an extra bonus sometimes you can play an instrument or speak a new language. Or complex equations. Makes me wonder if all brains contain all information but the pathways determine what is revealed to you. In other words, what you're good at. You contain all languages and all knowledge and don't even know it. You only know whatever the little electric impulses reveal to you.
Earonn - 6 months ago
How rude, to berate the person who saving your life. As a surgeon I'd be tempted to say "Okay you're right, I'll leave and have babies" right in the middle and walk towards the door.
Lil be lil 5 months ago
Cool surgeon, realizes everyone's different. Some people's brains are like jello, others are like cottage cheese.
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Socks Thecate 6 months ago
I had a craniotomy for meningioma removal about ten weeks ago. Meningiomas are non cancerous tumors that reside between the skull and the brain. I am still not back at work but expect to be in about two weeks. When they talk about the brain shifts during surgery, mine did a little. Also had some cranial nerve issues but they are slowly resolving (double vision, facial numbness) I'm having a follow up MRI to make sure everything is good up there soon.
Littlemiss 6 months ago
Imagine if they didn't that during surgery, ugh Bob help.. I opened up the skull now I can't remember what I was doing next😁
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Zaach 6 months ago
There is that scene in a movie (d**n, forgot the name) where all the doctors are sitting in the theater seats and the surgeon (James Coburn (one of my heroes - he moves so d**n gracefully)) and as his finally he turns around with both his middle fingers dripping with blood. I have no idea about the context
#3
I am a scrub nurse and I can smell when the surgeon has cut into the uterus because the blood smells different. It smells like period blood. I mentioned it once and all my male colleagues (including the surgeon) can’t tell but all the women in the room were like yep, i can always tell when we are in the uterus.
Richard Bebout 6 months ago
There is a good question as to the "why" women sync up. What is the purpose? Nature does it for a reason, so what is the reason?
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Jane Hower 6 months ago
Women avg 13 mil olfactory nerves, men avg 7 mil. Women just 'smell' better - hehe
Being a surgeon is a prestigious, well-respected, and lucrative career that helps countless people in need. However, it definitely isn’t a path meant for everybody. Doing this kind of work requires years of dedicated education, nerves of steel, steady hands, and enough resilience to weather a poor work/life balance.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England explains that if you want to be a surgeon, here are some of the qualities and skills you ought to have:
- Specialist knowledge for accurate diagnosis;
- Good communication and active listening skills;
- The ability to earn other people’s trust;
- Manual dexterity;
- A bright and eager mind;
- Lots of experience with both preoperative and postoperative care.
#4
Surgical nurse. Sometimes when babies are really wedged into the pelvis I have to go up through the v****a to push the baby back in. At the same time, the surgeon is going into the C-section incision with their hand to pull the baby’s head out. It gives me the heebie jeebies when our fingers meet inside from two separate holes.
Alewa 6 months ago
Interesting that using anatomical terms to describe the human body is unacceptable.
AnSi Bae 6 months ago
I bet you 100€ that Reddit would come up with something worse. 🤣
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Earonn - 6 months ago
At this point I think BP censors so insanely simply to get reactions. A kind of rage farming.
Cora Van der Gaag 4 months ago
FB censorship. Remember you read this in FB. That censorship is really weird.
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#5
I'm not a surgeon (medical scientist), but one interesting thing is that the Skene's and Bartholin's glands (female lubrication glands) are both named after men, so modern anatomical education is encouraging people to call them paraurethral and vestibular glands instead.
DC 6 months ago
Understandable given the history of male domination in anatomy, but isn't that something we could change by now? There's plenty of female anatomists, and have been in those days as well, they were just really scarce back then ... but ... we could change this. Or simply name things (in certain fields) after what they do, not after persons at all.
Load More Replies... Cydney Golden 6 months ago
Even a cesarean section is named for the baby and not the mother who was cut open.
Kim Steffen 6 months ago
I HATE the Latin names given to our genitals- pienis, scrootum, vullva...
Michael Largey 6 months ago
Regardless of the gender issues, the new names carry with them useful information.
RamiRudolph 6 months ago
Aren't there any bigger and more important problems in the medical field?
Chewie Baron 6 months ago
What, than getting male doctors to really understand female medical problems and not dismiss them? Maybe. Maybe not.
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#6
Not a surgeon, but a perinatal and neonatal nurse.
I knew almost nothing about menopause until recently. I was horrified to learn that the clitoris and labia can atrophy (shrink and become fragile and dry) very significantly, resulting in anorgasmia. This can be prevented and at least somewhat reversed with vaginal estradiol.
That atrophy is part of GSM, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, which affects the v****a, urethra and urinary meatus, and external genitalia. The tissue atrophy increases susceptibility to UTIs, which can be life threatening in older people.
$60/year worth of vaginal estradiol can prevent all sorts of pain, suffering, and death. But when women complain of vaginal dryness, they often just get told to use lube, which offers no protection from GSM.
Atom Bohr 6 months ago
I've never heard of this before, and that's terrifying. Given that all afab women go through menopause, the way it's barely spoken of is awful
Evelien Stijger Martens 5 months ago
Ots even denied and women are cept from treatment. Just suck it up is the main motto for everything menopausal
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Upstaged75 6 months ago
My grandmother once told me one of the worst things about getting old is having a dry v@gina. I was driving at the time and nearly wrecked the car. 🤣 I was taking her home after dinner at a restaurant and she was a bit tipsy. I told my mom I was never driving grandma after she'd been drinking ever again. 😂
Auntriarch 6 months ago (edited)
Can confirm it's wonderful stuff. It takes a few hours to absorb though, so best not to apply it at bedtime.
Mary Kelly 6 months ago
actually, about ten years after your last period, your whole area starts to look more and more like it did before your first period...in all aspects...it's like a benjamin buttoning...
Nandi La Sophia 6 months ago
Why is the word V****a censored? It isn't a bad word. WHy is everything so edited and censored now? I don't get it
Anna Drever 6 months ago
I’ve been on Ovestin cream for many many years. If I don’t use it enough I end up with vulvodynia and that’s not fun. I have to do a catch up and also find that acidophilus helps get things back to normal. So if you’re like me I recommend keeping on top of things.
What’s more, as a surgeon, you should also:
- Be able to adapt to changes in healthcare and medical developments;
- Have commitment and enthusiasm to learn new skills and techniques;
- Develop leadership skills so that they not only manage their team well, but also train future surgeons;
- Inspire confidence in other people;
- Be emotionally resilient and be able to support your team in tough situations.
Meanwhile, a recent survey of 1,620 healthcare professionals found that, out of the 4,760 qualities and 4,374 shortcomings, the top 3 qualities of truly great surgeons are: dexterity (54% of all respondents noted this), meticulousness (18%), and empathy (also 18%).
#7
Holding a beating heart is continually the most humbling and incredible feeling. Really makes you appreciate the spontaneity, strength, and fragility of life. This muscle is just banging away under your palm for no apparent reason, keeping time all on its own. And even though it kinda feels like a fish just consistently/steadily flapping its tail in your hand, it represents this person's whole life and is strong enough to handle decades of high blood pressure, fat, sugar, exercise, fear, love, and all the other things you throw at it.
Also lungs are kinda squishy when they're inflated, like a thicker wet balloon, but are really mushy and very slightly sticky when they're deflated, like an airy playdoh or unbaked focaccia dough.
Angela B 6 months ago (edited)
There was a Heart Surgeon, Victor Chang, who was shot (correct me if I am wrong Pandas) in a case of mistaken identity. He too said something along those lines. Holding someone's heart in your hands was very humbling. Gifted Surgeon, tragically taken too soon.
Hiram's Friend 6 months ago
It may be humbling, but every cardiac surgeon I worked with in 30 years in the OR had an ego you couldn't fit in an SUV.
Load More Replies... RamiRudolph 6 months ago
I have really bad Cardiophobia. I wonder if holding a beating heart would help with that or make everything worse.
#8
During organ transplantation, when a donor liver or kidney is totally hooked up, it starts filtering immediately. The more waste that needs to be cleared, the faster the urine or bile comes out.
Lil be lil 5 months ago
An old boyfriend donated a kidney for his older brother 35 years ago. Before he was admitted to UCSF we had watched a kidney transplant on tv. It was fascinating, the kidney is completely clean and white and when it is attached correctly the surgeon will know immediately as the blood fills it up.
#9
Not a surgeon or a dr, but when studying medicine in undergrad, I shadowed many doctors across numerous sectors of the medical field to determine which area I wanted to go into. (Spoiler alert - ended up not-going to medical school after all).
One of my rotations was with a wound care doctor, mostly related to bed sores that develop when a person lays in bed for too long. One particular patient had a sore directly on his a*s check, and it was so pronounced and developed that you could see his pelvic bone in the middle of the sore.
For some morbid reason, I asked if I could touch his a*s bone lol. Both the patient and the doctor agreed to it, and come to find out - he no longer had feeling in the area and could not feel me touching his bone. When wounds on the body deteriorate to that level, it also damages the nerve endings (meaning you could literally have a gaping wound/hole in your body and not even feel it). Gives me heebie jeebies.
Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
Somebody definitely wasn't taking care of that person and turning them like they should have.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Yep. We took care of my dad at home for 21 years, and he was completely bedridden and in diapers (catastrophic brain injury following an accident.) He never got a single bedsore in 21 years. Obviously my dad was fortunate (er, so to speak) to have family willing to care for him at home; he had 24-hr care between my mom, my sister, and I, with the occasional professional caregiver for a night shift here and there. We would let my dad sleep if he was asleep, but I think we moved him/turned him at least every hour when he was awake, and when he woke up from sleep/a nap we would shift him immediately to get him off the side he'd been laying on while asleep. I know it's a lot harder for people in hospitals, facilities, and wards - but they still need to be turned/shifted at least every two hours :(
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Sally Moen 6 months ago
The coccyx bone is the one that is most affected by a patient getting a bedspread. When a person lays in bed 24/7, their body needs to be turned regularly, as pressure points form where gravity holds them, and it's most often on the point just above your butt cheeks, on the spine. Add incontinence and it's a sure thing.
Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
I'm beginning to see why they decided not to go to go through with med school. OP was a little late learning that "I can feel it in my bones" is just a saying.
Which of these surgeon stories and anatomy facts intrigued you the most, Pandas? Do we have any surgeons or medical professionals in the audience today? Do you have any similar stories of your own?
Is anyone here considering a career in medicine? If so, what’s driving you? Let us know what you think in the comments at the bottom of this post.
#10
When you get bowel surgery of any kind, there's some degree of stool (poop) or succus (digested food before it turns into poop) that will invariably spill or get into the incision. It's not uncommon for me to do a hemorrhoidectomy and have to rinse the stool off the incision before I suture it closed. Remarkably, a touch of antibiotics during the case and rinsing the incision with saline is almost always enough to prevent an infection.
Now when your colon perforates at home and you try to tough it out for a few days before coming in half dead, you're gonna have a bad time. And if you survive you'll get a colostomy (poop bag out of your belly) like that other surgeon talked about.
Also, I've smelled a lot of horrible things in my tenure. Ruptured infected cysts, dead feet, stagnant vomit... NOTHING is worse than dead colon.
PSA please for the love of God, don't put off your colonoscopy. Start at 45 years old or 10 years before the age your first degree relative got colon cancer.
Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
Lots of colon cancer in my mother's family and my PCP had me start doing them at 47 and have to do it every 5 years. I've had 3 so far and they have all been clear.
Vanessa Steis 6 months ago (edited)
Let's hope they're always gonna be clear =)
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BookFanatic 6 months ago
46 and had my first colonoscopy in March. The prep is waaaaay worse than the actual procedure.
Huddo's sister 6 months ago
In Australia, once you turn 50 you get sent out a bowel screening test in the mail every two years, so you can collect a stool sample and send it back to be tested. That way you only have to have a colonoscopy if something is flagged because of the sample.
Earonn - 6 months ago
Same in Scotland. So grateful for our "evil, communist, tax-paid" health system that actually protects me.
Load More Replies... Earonn - 6 months ago
Had one last week. It's kind of a running joke to present them as horrible, but while everyone of course has different experiences, I found it "slighly unpleasant" in terms of pain and feeling bloated, and immensely fascinating. Ask if you can watch the screen alongside the doctor! So, don't be afraid of it, it's really not that horrible. In the UK you are offered an anaesthesia against anxiety, gas for mild pain and IV painkillers. I didn't need any of it. Polyp removal was completely painless and I walked out the hospital an hour later, took the bus home and have been fine without any pain etc. afterwards. Oh, and that first cuppa tea at the hospital after 2 days of fasting (you don't have to do it that long), it was so nice! :D
#11
Not a surgeon but a nurse. If you transplant a heart in a baby or little kid it will grow with them.
#12
Most people do not routinely clean their belly buttons. I’ve pulled worse things from belly buttons than I have from rectums.
Fat makes my job 10x harder (and your risk 10x higher).
Your organs don’t feel pain when I cut or burn into them.
You almost never have to “get the bullet out.”
Operating is literally fun. Especially on the robot.
Burning tissue smells like a steakhouse. And so I usually think about food. Stool and pus and dead bowel smells like 2 day old roadkill on a hot humid day. And yet I still think about food.
Leaving a dirty wound gaping wide open has a zero chance of infection. Suturing said wound closed is a guaranteed infection. It’s opposite of logic.
The OR staff are usually chatting idly about anything and everything not related to you or your surgery.
I almost ALWAYS have music on in my OR, and most other surgeons I know do too. Everyone’s got an OR playlist.
We do not care about or comment on what you look like naked.
Most employment models these days are salary based, and there’s little financial incentive for me to operate on you. I don’t get kickbacks from device or d**g companies. I have no say in billing practices or what you’re billed.
I tell my kids that I have the coolest job in the world because I get to cut people open and fix them, but they could care less.
JB 6 months ago
Good thing you're a doc and not a linguist, 'cause the expression is "they couldn't care less."
Upstaged75 6 months ago
That's all you got out of this super interesting post? You may want to think about why you're so concerned with correcting other people.
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BookFanatic 6 months ago
I was in "twilight sleep" for a procedure and the team was discussing the surgeon's new puppy. I scared everybody when I asked what the pup's name was. Looking back, I'm lucky the scalpel didn't slip. Lol
Bob Brooce 6 months ago
I'd pay good money to see somebody pull a Coke bottle out of a belly button.
Lala López 15 hours ago
Tengo un padre médico (cardiólogo) y me pasaba igual de niña. Su trabajo me importaba más bien poco. Lo que sí me importaba era su forma de ser dentro de casa, nuestra relación padre e hija, y nada más.
Earonn - 6 months ago
I always found it strange when people were up in arms about the operation team acting like everyone at their job. Of course they tell each other about their holiday plans, or what car to buy. My body isn't something so wonderful that they have to be in awe. Likewise they've seen so many bodies, what could them possibly interest in mine, apart from whatever they have to work on? If anything, please send me your OP playlist as a souvenir!
Greymom 6 months ago
No burning tissue does NOT smell like a steakhouse! At least not in my experience. This person has an interesting sense of smell!🤣
Marissa Voleta 6 months ago
Wow, intelligence varies across the board. To the surgeon, the phrase is: "Couldn't care less"
Upstaged75 6 months ago
Really? You must be one of those special people who's never made a mistake in their life. 🙄 Grow up.
Load More Replies... #13
1) I remember being in medical school during my surgery rotation and thinking, I can see secret, inside parts of this person they will never get to see. It’s their liver, but they don’t know what it looks like. And I do. I thought that was pretty magical.
2) if you are getting any kind of orthopaedic surgery, there is probably some poor med student trying valiantly to hold your leg/arm at the perfect angle for the surgeon for an extended period of time and wishing they had lifted more weights because they also have to hold it in a way that maintains sterility and usually this means they are holding an adult humans’ entire dead weight of leg as far away from their own body as possible. I remember wishing I was swole.
3) When they are releasing a frozen shoulder, they full on just crank the s**t out of your shoulder. It looks quite violent. One surgeon told me shhh shhh shhh listen… CRSSHHHH goes the person’s shoulder and the surgeon sighed in satisfaction and said, man, I love that sound. It was a horrible sound.
4) Orthopaedics is basically human carpentry, with literal power tools. The blood gets everywhere. I would walk out of the OR with blood on my forehead that had managed to get over top of my clear visor.
Cydney Golden 6 months ago (edited)
Slang term for having been working out, muscular.
Load More Replies... Nadine Debard 6 months ago
Number 4 is the exact image I have thinking about orthopedics. Yikes.
Earonn - 6 months ago
That was so fascinating about watching my colonoscopy: I got to see a part of myself I'd never otherwise see. And it wasn't a photo or a video of someone else, this was my body, warts (or rather: villi) and all! It's hard to describe, but I felt a mix of motherly protection and "ah, we're just meat" for it.
Helen Rohrlach 6 months ago
I think they mean seized at the joint. I had an operation on my thumb that was then splinted for 2week and when it was unwrapped, I couldn't move it. Made a crunch noise when it did move.
Load More Replies... linda kaserman 3 months ago
My dad sold tool, nuts bolts screws etc. When i went in or my knee replacement surgery in 2024, they had a 'workbench' of tools that my dad would have envied. I asked them to take a photo of it. but i think they thought i was kidding.
#14
Peeling a cyst out of an ovary with your hand is super satisfying. Better than peeling the protective clear plastic off of your new TV screen. But we don't take out cysts through a big incision hardly ever anymore, it's all laparoscopic for the most part now, so I don't get to do it much.
#15
Obligatory, not a surgeon, but I spent 6 years as a scrub nurse on the OT, and I have a 15+ year career as a senior RN. I have seen and worked in most specialised areas.
I am constantly amazed by how tough the human body actually it. The body can take way more abuse and neglect than you think it can. Things that you'd be absolutely certain would k**l a person can be recovered from.
But don't f**k with the delicate balance of electrolytes. You can rip off every limb, break every bone, rip out or shoot holes through most organs (so long as you stop the bleeding in time), there are even guidelines on how to, over several hours, do CPR on a person who has not had a heart beat for the best part of an hour due to extreme hypothermia, I've even seen an abdominal aorta accidentally cut clean in half and the person lived. But take a bit too much potassium, and you're a goner.
Luke Branwen 6 months ago
I love those "humans are space orcs" posts where hypothetical alien researchers are thoroughly shocked at how much damage can human body take and still live.
DC 6 months ago
Interesting perspective, but ... how would they have evolved far enough with a fragility that makes us appear indestructible? Plus ... yes, it can take a lot.
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TheVeryNaughtyCarebear 6 months ago
Yeah, this was me a few months ago. Blood test came back that my potassium levels were 6.5 and could I please go to the ER NOW?? I'm like, you sure, I'm feeling fine.... But they insisted.
Jenni Howard 6 months ago
Same, & hypocalcemia cos of my hypoparathyroidism
Load More Replies... #16
Surgeon here
Patients with hope, humor, or gratitude tend to heal more steadily.
Those with negative emotions often show slower recovery and more complications.
Michael Largey 6 months ago
Do the negative emotions cause the low recovery and extra complications, or do the low recovery and extra complications cause the negative emotions?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Honestly it's probably both. They probably whirl around in a cycle, each causing more of the other as it goes :(
Load More Replies... RedMarbles 6 months ago
No, there is a correlation. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-power-of-positive-thinking
Load More Replies... #17
Not a surgeon but I’ve scrubbed into abdominal surgery before to hold organs out of the way. With intestines, you can basically pull them out, then plop em back in and they just…. kinda sort themselves out. You can also feel peristalsis if you’re holding them.
Wang Zhuang 6 months ago (edited)
I had to look up the word peristalsis. Per Merriam-Webster: successive waves of involuntary contraction passing along the walls of a hollow muscular structure (such as the esophagus or intestine) and forcing the contents onward
Shortstuff 6 months ago
I had a spinal fusion done from the front. Surgeon told me they take everything out, do the surgery, then put all back in place.
#18
Dentist here. I still find great satisfaction when the last periodontal ligament fiber breaks while pulling a tooth. Holding the tooth in your forceps and looking into a clean boney socket 😌
Imagine taking out an ingrown hair, or finally popping that pimple. But so much better.
Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
Fun fact: Dentists have an abnormally high s*****e rate and this post isn't make that fact any harder to believe.
Jane Hower 6 months ago
It's because most OTHER doctors get patients who are so happy after they get treated and get better, but people don't like going to a dentist and seldom say thanks afterwards. It's depressing to them. It's why I go out of my way to be funny and happy and appreciative of their work when I go see my dentist or hygienist
Load More Replies... Sally Moen 6 months ago
I'm glad there are efficient "pliers" that are specifically made for pulling out teeth. It's frightening to have one pulled, and having it over quickly is best
Shortstuff 6 months ago (edited)
I had a bottom tooth extracted. Dentist had to use such force to remove it, he c.r.a.c.k.e.d the tooth above. Then I had to pay $1200 for a root canal which was a disaster. He put the post in at an angle into a nerve. A year of pain later, had that tooth removed. He took no responsibility.
Ginger ninja 5 months ago
I used to twist and pull my loose baby teeth out and can confirm it is a satisfying feeling
Richard Bebout 6 months ago
I had to have a lower molar on the right pulled. It was fused to the jaw bone. That was exciting. The Dr' asked if I'b been a car accident as it's not normal to be fused like it was. Lots of drilling on the jaw bone after the extraction.
#19
Surgeon.
Interesting facts about the human body most people don’t know:
-women tend to carry more fat under the skin, men tend to carry more fat around their organs in their belly
-when your arteries are diseased from smoking, diabetes, they form plaques which then try to heal by pulling calcium out of your bones and putting it into the walls of the arteries. Very diseased arteries feel like pieces of chalk they are so hard from all the calcium.
-you have about the right number of arteries, but you have more veins than you really need. Veins serve as a reservoir for extra blood, in addition returning blood to the heart after oxygen delivery.
Jane Hower 6 months ago
That's why women feel smoother and softer to the touch. (fat under the skin(
#20
Thin patients almost always do better surgically as less intra abdominal fat makes the surgery more precise and nothing beats precision when it comes to surgery. The few times I've operated on marathon runners... it was absolute bliss
Edit 1: since loads of people have asked this... high muscle mass but lower body fat is still far easier for intra abdominal surgery compared to high body fat content. If you are a body builder we may have to go through more muscle to access your peritoneal/abdominal cavity but after that the surgery will still be easier and allow for more precise dissection.
Ideal muscle mass level... think Brad Pitt in fight club and less the rock. But I'd pick both over a very obese patient any day of the week. Hope this helps.
Luke Branwen 6 months ago
I've heard it's because hospitals outright refuse overweight / obese cadavers so doctors in training only practice on skinny bodies all the time. So as if it wasn't enough already, we're discriminated against even after death 🙃
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 6 months ago
Sounds about right. As a fat person, I may as well just off myself as I'm clearly too ugly and useless for life. That's how it feels.
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Ginger ninja 5 months ago
Maybe y’all surgeons should practice on fat cadavers more and then surgery on fat people would be easier for you 🤷♀️ in most cases the fat people are fat because they have problems exercising and have to take meds which cause weight gain because of whatever they need surgery for
Earonn - 6 months ago
But I've heard that moderately overweight people have better chances of survival after really serious surgery / illnesses. Maybe that bit of easy accessible extra energy, their bodies have at their disposal. I fear, I could provide additional energy for quite some patients....
Jake Bertz 5 months ago
Well that and nutrition. People that are a little overweight eat more. And when you're ill/injured, your body needs more nutrients to recover. And where do nutrients come from? Food. If you aint eating enough, gonna be harder to recover.
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TheAngryAngwantibo 5 months ago
Something people don't realise is fat is grease and grease is..well, greasy, slippery. In surgery, a little fat isn't too bad but a lot òf fat ends up coating everything in grease so instruments are far harder to grip. Imagine doing intricate surgery using tools that are hard to grip or slip off the body part. Its not a case of they don't like doing surgery on larger folk, it's that it is far more risky.
#21
During knee replacement they completely dislocate your knee, put the knee cap to the side, and start measuring and cutting. During tibia replacement part assists help push the tibia forward so you can apply components accurately.
During hip replacement the entire hip is dislocated, and if it’s old posterior approach, your femoral head is sticking out of the wound at like 45 degrees, roughly.
When you get a joint replacement revision, all bets are off. Freaking forget it. There is so much pulling, hammering, drilling. If it’s a hip you can lose so much blood you need a transfusion.
During abdominal surgery if you are reconnecting a patient’s colon, the surgeon will stick a special instrument up your butt to staple the r****m to the intestine. Yes staple.
Beth Wheeler 6 months ago
I've watched different surgeries on Discovery Health Channel several years ago and I couldn't watch orthopedic surgeries because of what they have to do.
UKDeek 6 months ago
Ortho surgeries are brutal - I spents a few weeks in theatres when I did my training many years ago, and will never forget watching a hip replacement, especially when the surgeon pulled out a brick bolster.
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Samantha H 6 months ago
I was once read in a Book written by a Surgeon that the Medical School Rugby team went into Orthopaedics. I had a knee replacement and it was horrendously painful and a very long recover.
#22
Brain doesn’t hurt. During awake craniotomies once the bone is off and the outermost protective layer (duramater) of the brain is open, there’s no pain.
Also, healthy brain has the consistency of fatty jello that was taken out of the fridge an hour too early and hasn’t fully set yet.
UKDeek 6 months ago
Absolutely not! I would recommend a good spoon instead...
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Philly Bob 6 months ago
Especially after reading some of the c**p we read on social media, I'm with ya!
Load More Replies... Richard Bebout 6 months ago
It just amazes me, we are inside that mass of Jello like organ. So, just what are we?
#23
When you palpate the liver with your hand it feels . . . really nice. Smooth, slippery, and a perfect consistency.
#24
When operating on a living person, spinal nerves look (and act) just like spaghetti. Have to use a smaller suction and be careful or else you’ll slurp them up and it gets annoying to try to not continuously capture them in your suction.
David Chaykin 5 months ago
My greatest paranoia was assisting, using a microscope and doing spine. Suction can do a lot of damage. Always suction on the cottonoid, whether it was brain or spine.
#25
Surgical tech here. My main specialty is Neuro surgery and the amount of bones I have to crunch up is quite a bit. Nothing like holding a chunk of your spine(Facet) and using a ronguer to crush it up. Surgeon takes bone out and we crunch it up and mix it up with some biologics and put it back into your disc space(TLIFs mainly) Think of it like screws and rods in your back. Its like almost like bone glue. Also we have a bone mill that looks like a food processor and it grinds up your bones pretty small.
Shortstuff 6 months ago (edited)
Yep, I had a spinal fusion with a carbon fiber cage and a bone graft taken out of my hip. A later xray showed a hairline fracture in my hip from the donor site.
#26
I want to know why no one prepares you for the gas you experience with abdominal surgery. It truly sucks.
Bobette McCann 6 months ago
I was informed of this after my first C-section. I was told that when they close you up, air gets trapped in that area. I was told to leave the bed ASAP and walk out the air. It was embarrassing until I saw how many other c-section patients were walking and farting in the corridor.
Earonn - 6 months ago
My colonoscopy team made clear that the gas coming out was absolutely natural and nothing to be ashamed of at all, and that it wouldn't smell anyway because it was just the clean gas they had pumped inside. Honestly, they did such a good job at removing any feeling of shame or embarrassment.
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Ivona 6 months ago
Gas isn't produced for a while after the surgery, and the patients need to stay in the hospital until their intestines resume producing gas.
Nadine Debard 6 months ago
I think they're talking about the gas used to do coelioscopy. The pain is horrible, like stitch in the side.
Load More Replies... Georgia Ireland 5 months ago
I have a scar very similar to the one picture, and yes, the gas was horrible.
#27
Skin is surprisingly tough. Using a new scalpel blade, you need a fair amount of force to make an incision. Before my first opening, my med school attending warned me about not using enough force: “No hesitation marks!”.
Zaach 6 months ago
There is a surgeon in Texas who knapped some obsidian into a scalpel; he said that it was so sharp (almost one molecule thick) that the wounds healed very fast and there was no feedback - normal scalpels are dragged through the flesh but the obsidian scalpel just glides through the skin and flesh
Auntriarch 6 months ago
I can just imagine Phil Harding and Alice Roberts getting their heads together over this (UK archeologists specialising in flint knapping and bodies respectively)
Load More Replies... #28
RN here. Organ donation patients while technically declared "brain dead", must be kept alive through a ventilator, meds or whatever is needed until organ harvest is finished. There's no guaranteed way to know if there's even the slightest hint of awareness or not even if paralyzed. Watching one of these is one of the most humbling experiences to how frail we really are.
Undercover 6 months ago
At the stage I'm a vegegetable, they can take whatever body parts are still of use. Yeet that organ out! 😁 Yes, I'm a registered donor.
Feathered Dinosaur 6 months ago
The definition of brain dead is there's ZERO activity in your brain, so you experience nothing, you're dead. Must be confirmed by 2 independent doctor before you even think about harvesting organs
Tommy DePaul 6 months ago
I wonder how many people you just convinced NOT to be organ donors with your post. I hope you don't get to meet karma. Actually, I don't care.
Libia Velasquez 4 months ago
This is why I am not an organ donor .. they might even let you d** to harvest your organs. Science better start using pig organs or 3D printers or something soon
#29
The surgeon (Urologist) told me pre-surgery that testicles are basically engineered for easy removal, so that’s a thing…..
Helen Rohrlach 6 months ago
In cases of testicular cancer, they are removed through the groin not the s*****m. As a female farmer I was surprised to learn that.
Sally Moen 6 months ago
It's an inefficient builder that puts reproductive organs in a vulnerable place. They really ought to be placed in a cavity that opens as "needed", for safety.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Temperature regulation - spérm require a temperature slightly cooler than the rest of the body for optimal production. That's why the tésticles are outside the body and not inside the body. They need to be about 5F/3C cooler than "normal" body temperature. Evolution, not "built" ;)
Load More Replies... #30
Im not a surgeon but I used to work as a surgical tech so I have seen some stuff. The plaque removed from a carotid artery felt like a pencil eraser.
Intestines are super slippery
Cautery on fat smells like sort of like funky corn chips
I've seen different sizes and colors of gallstones, some like black pebbles about the size of a quarter....like handfuls of those in one patient.
Handing off the pannus in a panniculectomy was one of my most favorite things to do, so freaking satisfying and it felt like passing off Simba from the Lion King.
I scrubbed at least 75 cesarean sections and not once did intestines come out, im not sure if people on here are confusing the uterus or placenta for intestines? Trust me OBGYNs have zero business handling your intestines.
Littlemiss 6 months ago (edited)
I watched a c section video the other day. Not quite as gory as I thought it would be. I've had one, and now understand my husband's reaction to accidentally looking over the sheet. Though having said that, my son's placenta was stuck under my ribs and incredibly tiny, so it was a bit more interesting for the medical team watching. There were 13 of them.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
My gallstones were bright yellow. I just assumed they all looked like that!
#31
Ovaries can develop what is known as Dermoid cysts, which can grow hair, teeth, and bone inside.
#32
Some people have sparkly earwax.
Was an ear nurse. Suctioned ~12,000 ears. At first I thought it was actual glitter that people had in there but eventually realised it's natural.
#33
Obligatory: I am not a surgeon, I was a lifeguard at Waterpark and later moved to guard at a lake.
I had to get into the water to perform a spinal for a woman who hit her head on a metal bar on a slide. Nobody really goes into much detail on just how fragile your spine is. Everyone experiences back pain, but it can never be stressed enough that all it takes is one fall, one bump, one rough car ride, and you could become paralyzed, or live with permanent back pain. It is seriously super possible to break your spine with a simple slip. If you can walk, or if you can run, take full advantage of that fact, cause it can be taken away in a single moment.
ROSESARERED 6 months ago
Broke my back pushing a cart of stock at my retail job, thankfully not too badly, but it was extremely painful. Someone else, 25 years layer, broke their back putting a stick of plastic storage crates/totes onto a bottle shelf on tje store. Backs can be broken easier than we imagine.
Sally Moen 6 months ago
Is it a spinal board to safety transport the person with a back injury?
ROSESARERED 6 months ago
Yes, keeps them immobile, head, and body strapped, so they cannot move anything.
Load More Replies... Jane Hower 6 months ago
ALWAYS hold the hand rails of stairs - by the time you realize you've tripped, it's to late to grab and down you go.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
The discs are incredibly fragile and sensitive too. My dad herniated one of his discs (this was many years before his ladder accident) and after trying many nonsurgical and pharmaceutical treatment methods, he eventually had to have fusion surgery of the two vertebrae that the disc was between. He still had a lot of pain afterwards, but it was much less and much more manageable than the herniated disc.
Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
Uh... a spinal WHAT? I ask for the percentage of the population who was not aware that lifeguard duty involved knowing any form of spinal procedure.
Hilary Blevins 6 months ago
I'm assuming a spinal immobilization. Like a neckbrace/stretcherboard/holding in place kind of thing.
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#34
During a knee scope, orthopedic surgeons will fill the knee joint with saline to expand the working space and help with visibility. With all that water, it turns out that adipose tissue (aka, fat) looks like little fluffy white sparkly clouds, like something that you'd find a unicorn hopping around on.
Ginger ninja 5 months ago
So that Doctor Who episode wasnt too far off then, they just needed to be sparkly
#35
The intestines are so long that we have to pack them in like spaghetti during surgery, and sometimes they seem almost impossible to fit back in.
Theoretical Empiricist 6 months ago
Took care of a bowel postop patient whose intestines were so swollen they couldn't be fit back in. The surgeon ended up slicing open and sewing in an IV bag as a "window" until the swelling went down.
#36
Nurse here.
I don’t work in the OR, but I used to do wound care.
Certain kinds of chronic wounds may be wider and/or deeper than the opening in the skin would lead you to believe.
When caring for them the wounds need to be measured by length, width, and depth. They are also assessed for being undermined (think about running your tongue between your teeth and lips) or tunneled (purse your lips and stick your tongue out). This is often done with a gloved finger.
The feeling of putting part of your hand inside a human that way, and feeling the warmth is, to me, unpleasant. I don’t know how surgeons become accustomed to it.
Exposed bone that’s being eaten away feels like rough concrete. Healthy periosteum (bones exterior and joint cartilage is smooth and slick.
#37
Not a surgeon but when you have an autopsy your tongue is pulled backward and out your chest through your Y incision.
Littlemiss 6 months ago
Okay so I googled it, as everything is technically attached yes the tongue is removed as described. If you have a strong gut you can see the picture as described.
Lil be lil 5 months ago
I heard that S.American d**g lords did this surgery on snitches. Called a Neck tie. I seen pictures. Disturbing and bizarre. What is the reason for an autopsy to do this?
BookFanatic 6 months ago
In autopsies, they make a large incision on your torso that looks like a Y. I'd say Google it, but only if you have a strong stomach.
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#38
Surgery nurse here, ortho.
I did ortho oncology for years. Bone tumors that were always positively malignant looked scaled, like fatty fish skin.
Also, for kids, when doing a femur-tibial replacement, it seems to disrupt the growth rates and their affected foot grows at a much slower rate than the other, if not stopping entirely. They’d have 2 different sized feet moving forward.
Ginger ninja 5 months ago
I’ll bet thats a pain for those kids parents and the kids when they grow up, they’ll have to buy two sets of every shoe
#39
Paramedic here. I’ve never had a more intimate experience with anyone than when someone has received a trauma they are about to die from and you know it and they know it and then they do.
I could never m****r someone but like. I get it.
Samantha H 6 months ago
I am an Ex Emergency Medical Technician and agree with this, what was really sad when they told me to give a message to their Relatives and see their faces light up for a minute before I passed the message on.
Silberwolf 6 months ago
M.U.R.D.E.R...M.U.R.D.E.R...M.U.R.D.E.R...M.U.R.D.E.R...M.U.R.D.E.R...Oh no! Now I definitely created some m.u.r.d.e.r.e.r.s with that. Sorry :(
#40
Not a surgeon, but humans can roll their eyes (no not pitch your eyes, rotate about the iris). The muscles for this are essentially vestigial, since we evolved from prey animals with eyes on the sides of the head—meaning they needed to roll to focus when the head moves up and down. To this day, if we tilt our head up and down, our eyes “roll” slightly in response (think airplane pitch vs roll). There are very creepy videos of this with head mounted cameras on YouTube.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Huh, apparently (maybe?) I can voluntarily move these vestigial muscles? Here's a link to a video of me "wiggling" my eyes. I've been able to do it since I was a kid. It looks similar to other videos of what OP is describing: https://imgur.com/a/lakota-s-vibrating-eyes-y8qguff
SadFatTortilla 5 months ago
That looks just like nystagmus! And you can do this on command? Thats wild. As someone with an inner ear disorder and neurological conditions, it happens to me on occasion but its always 100% involuntary.
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#41
Not a surgeon, but an Addictions Therapist. I have a few "fun" but not so fun facts I learned from my field.
The human body never ceases to amaze me with how much it can take. Heavy drinkers have insane tolerance levels. Like BAC levels way over what would k**l a non-drinker. I am talking over .70, which equates to being 9 or 10 times the legal limit. These are people that are polishing off gallons of Vodka per day. (Vodka is the drink of choice that I have found to be the most common out of this group. Usually because it is cheap.)
Another "fun" fact, heavy alcoholics can also experience what we call reverse tolerance, which is when heavy drinkers transition from having a sky high tolerance to feeling drunk off of less alcohol. This is because the liver becomes so damaged over time that it begins to fail. Untreated, it will cause death.
Yet another "fun fact" is that your risk for a*******n increases if you have had bariatric surgery, especially after the first year or two. There could be a lot of reasons for this including trading a food a*******n for an alcohol or d**g a*******n. (This is called a cross a*******n). Many people that struggle with weight loss are also more likely to have pre-existing Depression, Anxiety, and a negative self-image. Also, the stomach is smaller, and absorbs quicker, allowing alcohol to enter the blood stream faster. It is becomes very easy to o******e from smaller amounts of alcohol. I will never forget a client I had where his a*******n became so severe that he would pour alcohol down his feeding tubes. He was in his 60s, but looked much older. This guy was a walking miracle. He had been hit by a bus, survived a motorcycle accident, had a few heart attacks and strokes, and beat cancer three times. The guy must have been half robot with the amount of metal pins and rods holding him together. When I knew him he had a tube in place because he had developed throat cancer from chain smoking and they had to put a hole in his neck so he could eat. It was a regular occurrence that we would find him passed out and he would go to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. He was a beautiful but tortured soul and always said it was a cruel irony that he had survived so much because he did not want to live. I hope that he is at peace wherever he is now.
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago (edited)
Your metabolism also skyrockets. Many (15!) years before I got it done I went to a concert with a friend who was 18 Mos. post-surgery. I used to live with her, and during the height of my binge drinking, she could still easily put me under the table. She had two drinks at that show and was three sheets. Hilarious. She had me drive us back to my place. We got back and talked for a while, and I could HEAR the sobriety coming back into her voice, it happened that steadily and quickly. (I'm now nine months post surgery and haven't yet touched a drop. But then, I quit altogether in 2021. Still want to experiment with the metabolism though...)
Papa 6 months ago
I knew a guy who could get drunk pretty easily on beer, sleep a few hours to sober up, and then get drunk again. He died of a heart attack in his mid 60's.
Load More Replies... Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
Not-so-fun addendum: You're more likely to develope additional addictions when you've suffered from some form of a*******n before, in general. Your body gets used to the general mechanic behind a*******n, making it prone to seeking out other sources of that mechanic. I'm not sure how much of this is physical vs mental reaction, but it's worth noting. The distance between 0 and 1 is greater than the distance between 1 and 2, and that apparently applies to addictions in general, not just the object of one a*******n.
Silberwolf 6 months ago
A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N...A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N...A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N...A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N...A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N...What's wrong with using completely normal words to describe things?
#42
At 25mmhg, your body overrides the control of your external a**l spincter (the one you use to voluntarily poop, there is the internal component that relaxes involuntarily) and then...you poop yourself.
It's a protective mechanism to keep you from perforating your bowels.
I remember this fact from when I had anatomy in 2014 as an undergrad.
MeMosabe 4 months ago
25 millimeters of mercury, a measurement of pressure, apparently, in this case, in the bowel.
Load More Replies... #43
Not a surgeon but during medical school rotations had a patient with a sacral ulcer we took to the operating room to debrief (get rid of necrotic tissue).
I remember noting the patient had a small oozing ulcer on the front of their thigh and mentioned this to the surgeon.
Proceeded to flip patient over and start the surgery. Surgeon asked me to start but I was going a bit slow so he grabs the scalpel and starts digging around with it, realizes there’s a lot of give and starts using his hand and next thing you know the hand is coming out of that thigh ulcer we’d seen at the start.
This patient had a bmi of 60 with cancer going through treatment. Apparently they were so immunosuppressed she was masking necrotizing fasciitis that had eaten through her perineum.
Atom Bohr 6 months ago
This took me a moment to figure out. A sacral ulcer is positioned near the base of the spine, so the búttocks region. This surgeon manage to pass their hand from the buttock region down into the thigh. I don't want to think hard enough to figure out how the perineum comes into this
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
The only gross person here is you, how you're acting, and who you are inside.
Load More Replies... #44
Surgeon and sonologist.
As in other not so suspected areas, is possible to accumulate solid debris (detritus, blood clothes, etc) in the s*****m and eventually form "pearls" (a.k.a scrotal pearls or scrotolith).
Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
I'll never be able to read Lovecraft again. All monoliths have been permanently ruined and replaced by scrotoliths, and nothing will ever fix that intrusive thought from popping in there...
Auntriarch 6 months ago
Well they will definitely need to re-do the illustrations
Load More Replies... #45
So when they make an incision on you they use a scalpel to get a nice clean cut through the skin to minimize scarring.
But cutting through the fat and visera with a scalpel can be a bit messy as edges will bleed.
So they use what is called a bovie-tip, which is like essentially a very hot soldering iron that will cut and cauterize at the same time.
There is a lot of smoke and the smell of freshly burned human is, not particularly pleasant but not that offensive either.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
Well, tbh, we ARE made of meat, just like any other mammal :x
#46
Pulmonary/ icu physician/ not a surgeon but work closely with thoracic surgery especially when it comes to lung transplant. Your native lungs receive blood flow from two
Sources: your pulmonary arteries (which blood passes through en route to the lungs to receive oxygen) as well as your bronchial arteries (which come off the aorta). If you need/receive a lung transplant, current standard of care is that only the pulmonary artery circulation is reconnected and the transplanted lungs lose all bronchial artery blood flow. It is miraculous that these lungs are able to survive on this single source of blood flow!! I will say that this strategy may be evolving given the high rate of rejection in lung transplant and some small observational studies which show benefit in re-anastaomosing the bronchial artery circulation as a mean to decrease risk of chronic rejection.
#47
As a surgical tech, I've had to nudge students awake that we're assisting in surgery.
fellowhumanbean (she/her) 6 months ago
omg i love your name and pfp <3 kakapos are adorable
Load More Replies... #48
Not a surgeon, but have photographed numerous surgical procedures. I’m always impressed by how “construction”-like tools are used on live people. For example, replacing a hip involves a huge drill, hammering in a joint with a sledgehammer, sawing off the head of the thighbone, etc. It’s as violent and loud as you might imagine.
Papa 6 months ago
I have a butterfly shaped piece of titanium plate in my neck, secured with four screws. I asked the surgeon if they drill pilot holes for the screws, and was told that yes, they do.
Lowrider 56 6 months ago
I got the same from c3 to c6. Ex-rays of the finished surgery are cool looking. Hmmm, I should put a picture of it on my phone.
Load More Replies... Sally Moen 6 months ago
Two hundred years ago they used saws, hammers, other types of tools like used today. Difference is, our tools get sterilized, or if unable to be, are single-use, and we use anesthesia. Imagine having 2 strong men to hold you down while a surgeon fixes you broken arm
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago
I've been recently diagnosed with congenital hip dysplasia, and while mine is mild, I may need hip replacements down the line. I am going to absolutely demand to look at the tools before they put me under (or at least ask to see photos of them afterwards) because that sounds AWESOME XD
Auntriarch 6 months ago
So you're not pure wolf, you've got some German shepherd genes?
Load More Replies... #49
Not a doctor, but I found this out from my surgeon after he operated on me:
Apparently you don't really have to put organs back in place after a surgery, within reason. Like obviously don't put intestines up by the throat or something but as long as all the organs are generally in the right area they kind of schlorp back to their correct places after a while.
I found this out because my laparoscopic surgery became very invasive after my surgeon found out that a tumor was growing around a major blood vessel. Apparently he had to kind of shove my intestines and kidney out of the way while removing the tumor.
Also, apparently during those kinds of surgeries you get bloated with air and you have to spend a week farting it all out.
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
For some abdominal surgeries, they fill you with air to make it easier for the lap tools to get between stuff. The gas is ridiculous for 3-5 days.
Vanessa Steis 6 months ago
My boyfriend had to have his gall bladder removed, it was so infected, it was already in shreds.The first night he went to the ER because of the pain they sent him home saying it was just constipation. The next night again to the ER because, of course, he was still in pain. The properly checked, removed it, and the next few days he not only was utterly exhausted and vomiting from the narcosis, he had different oain, because of all the air in his stomach. I wonder why they leave so much in there...
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Jane Hower 6 months ago
I had a 6.5 hr op to fix a paraesphogeal hernia and I'm sure they had to 'rearrange' lots of my insides and it totally messed up all the expensive work I had paid for my plastic surgeon to give me a flat tummy a few years before. Now I have NO waist and a pudgy stomach. ugh
Lil be lil 5 months ago
Hell with any kind of abdominal surgery, it's not gonna be good.
Load More Replies... #50
The human brain feels a bit like tofu when touched, and it's so delicate that it can begin to lose shape under its own weight if not properly supported.
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
From this article I have gathered the we are all at least 70% soybean.
#51
When dividing the pancreas with an energy device like a Bovie or a harmonic scalpel, to me, the burnt pancreatic parenchyma smells some what like peanut butter.
#52
Baby livers feel like tofu.
Anthony Elmore 6 months ago
What else are they supposed to fondle when they don't have baby livers on hand?
Load More Replies... #53
Not a surgeon, but a pathologists’ assistant. A fair number of people have splenules or “baby spleens”. They can be congenital, or become established after trauma.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 months ago (edited)
My dad had to have his spleen removed after a car accident many decades ago (his spleen was damaged in the accident.) I wonder if his body established a splenule or two afterwards! We didn't have him autopsied after he died in 2021 (there was no need to) so I guess we'll never know XD
#55
The human body can still reflexively move or twitch during surgery even when fully anesthetized, which can be unsettling if you're not used to it.
#56
Not a surgeon but a pathologists' assistant. Renal (kidney) tumors tend to be the prettiest in my opinion lol they're commonly a nice golden yellow color.
#57
Roux en Y gastric bypasses are probably a terrible hack job that future surgeons will look on in horror. There is a role for the Billroth for subtotal gastrectomies, but a Roux en Y for weight loss is a terrible idea. Do a sleeve with a SADI. If your surgeon doesn’t know what a SADI is, get the f**k out.
(An aside; all surgeries carry risk. But, there is a cluster of the “brutal triad” as my team has come to know them: RYGBs who have chronic pain, chronic nausea, and limited PO intake. We haven’t seen this in a sleeve pt, now ~800 of them with at least 5 years follow-up at our institution. It’s interesting as nothing is removed with a RYGB, only a rerouting.).
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
Sleeves are also REALLY easy to get around--harder than lap bands (which no one does anymore afaik), but not much. My surgeon showed me revision statistics when I was deciding what path to go down. The sleeve revision schedule was hilarious and horrifying in equal measure.
RedMarbles 6 months ago
For anyone who's interested in medical stuff, I cannot recommend The Pitt (HBO/Max) more highly.
Lowrider 56 6 months ago
Uhhh, what?!! Is it just me or did anyone understand a freaking thing they said?
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