What Medical Surgeries and Procedures Have You Had?

[Ghost_Tracker]

I had scoliosis surgery when I was 14. That was . . . a little rough. During the two or three days after the operation, it occasionally felt like somebody was taking a pen and stabbing it into me. I wasn't in agony or anything like that, but there were occasional sharp pains that were a wee bit rough. I also kept dreaming, the following day, that this REALLY big, heavyset man kept coming into the room and sitting on me, and then walking out through a "secret door" behind my head. (Yeah - there was a LIIIIIIITLE bit of morphine involved LOL!) It also took awhile to recover after I left the hospital - I had to be brought home in the back of a station wagon that my parents had rented (which was VERY risky, due to the possibility of a car accident) and then I had to take a few weeks to be able to sit up and start walking again - first with a cane. Had to wear a brace for nine months after, until the spinal fusion healed completely. It wasn't THAT bad, though, more like just this experience I had when I was a kid - and the surgeon told me that I had the second-best correction he had ever had.
These days they use wires instead of rods, to support the spine - I don't know the details but I picture all these wires running in a spiral up the person's spine - that apparently gives much better support. I do feel the side effects of the rods at times; for example my neck gets sore sometimes and it escalates into a combined headache and very sore neck, and it's BRUTAL, but it's easily treatable with a couple of Advil so once that kicks in it's not too bad. Before it kicks in, honestly, it's "a little rough."

Little story to tell about the surgeon - this guy was GOOD. He did Medical School in three years (it normally takes four). Rubik's Cube was popular back then. Right before the surgery, he came into my room to review for me the details of the operation, and he saw a Rubik's Cube on the nightstand that my parents had gotten for me to help pass the time. He picked up the Rubik's Cube and started telling me the details, seemingly with almost 100% of his attention on the conversation, while "absently" playing with the cube - barely looking at it. He finished up telling me about the operation, answering my questions, etc. and returned the Rubik's Cube to the nightstand - with the first two layers correctly completed. Yeah. The take-home message was of course obvious: "You're in good hands, kid!" That confidence-builder was very much appreciated.

I also had surgery when I was 5 or 6 weeks old for something called "Pyloric Stenosis" - the valve between my stomach and small intestine got "stuck" closed and so the food wouldn't pass from one to the other. With obvious possible consequences if it wasn't fixed. An M.D. would probably get a chuckle out of me phrasing it like this, but I had an operation to "cut" the valve back open. I uhm, don't remember that one.

I also had two "routine" operations, one to have my tonsils out when I was 2 years old - I remember that, believe it or not - and one when I got hit in the nose with a hockey ball. I was playing something called "deck hockey" which was popular when I was a kid - I had somehow ended up on the ground and I looked up to see where the ball was - well, some guy on the other team had smacked the ball with his stick to try to "clear" the ball out of his team's defensive zone - so the answer to that question was "headed right for my nose!" So yeah, my nose got broken - had to have minor surgery to correct a "deviated septum."

That's about it though. Like I said, the scoliosis was kinda rough but other than that I guess I've been fairly lucky as far as this kinda stuff goes, at least compared to some.