Death's Head wrote:Looks like out of all the current entries, I win. I was in hospitlal around 9 years ago with a collapsed lung. This was a relatively straight forward procedure which involved having a bottle attached to my chest via a tube and staying in hospital for 5 days whilst my lung repaired itself.
In Jan this year I had it collapse again and after the simpler procedure (syringe in chest) failed to give the desired results (I.e. Lung restoration) I had to go back in for the previous procedure. However, much to my horror, I discovered that the guidelines say that if you have a 2nd collapsed lung (same one) you have to have an operation to attach the lung to your inner chest wall to prevent it from happening again
I did protest, but different doctors/surgeons/specialists there all told me the same thing so I eventually agreed. I'd never had an anaesthetic before or operation and when I had to sign a consent form the night before (where possible outcomes included death) I was a bit to say the least. That isn't exactly the end of the story, but I'll save the next installment for another time.....
I think Melatonin's had that done.
I can't remember exactly, but I think they basically just damage the outside of your lung enough that it causes adhesions with the chest wall.
Extremelyweird as a first time experience. Am very glad I've got my own room with tv etc. Not allowed to leave bed so going to the loo in what looks like a cardboard sock is fun. I was Expecting to feel the anaesthetic kicking in but I realy didn't. One minute I was talking to the guy and the next I was in recovery. I think I may have conked out mid sentence.
I remember having wires everywhere and for some reason my body was shaking when i woke up so they shoved me on some more oxygen. Very strange waking up in recovery and finding out I'd already had a couple of conversations which I have no memory of with the doctors in there... Ive for bits and bobs memory wise of coming back to my room and seeing the girlfriend but I have no idea what we talked about. I'llfind out how the surgery actually went inthe morning. Really struggling to sleep. Pains not too bad - managed by meds but I keep catching the needle thing in the back of my left ha on stuff which bloody kills.
Very odd to be honest. It's just like I was told before. Blank spots like you have after a night out, but no booze. Just gaps in time and memory! But as far as I know, im okay!
I remember talking to the woman as she pumped the anaesthetic through the IV. Vision went blurry for a second but then went back to normal like I had fought the effects off, about five seconds later I was gone. Remember waking up and talking to her again, apologising if I was a tad out of it. Only memory after that until the evening was whistling the great escape with the guys who were wheeling me and my bed back to the ward.
Glad to hear it went well, Mini E. Careful with those piss things, hard to tell when it's getting full when you're out of it.
I've had a hernia for the past year and a half if not longer. It's in one side of the tubes where the testicles come out from when you're developing in the womb so I've got a weird lump in my pelvis area. I've been to the doctor and he confirmed what it was, I was bricking myself when I first found it, I thought it was something more serious.
I was meant to go in for the operation to have it sorted but my mum ended up in hospital so I couldn't have it done as I'd be alone the days afterwards (need someone with you or something). It doesn't hurt very often and the doctor told me he's had one for 40 years. I really should get it checked out again and sorted but I hate hospitals and I'm scared of the idea of having an operation for some reason.
I can only remember two things about my last operation. My speech slurring as the anaesthetic kicked in and the interrogation I got from the anaesthesiologist when he noticed my heart rate prior to injecting me with the stuff. Probably should've taken that sedative in hindsight.
Thanks guys. It's kinda odd, I've been convinced I feel fine and am back to normal ever since waking up, it's only after some more time I realise I really wasnt normal then. I've got very little memory after the op! It was so strange to wake up and have the two women who, to my knowledge, I'd never seen before start talking to me about my life which I'd apparently told them!
Saw the girlfriend for 30 mins or so (I think) when I came back to room and I've got about 3 snippets of memory to do with that in my head... Plus I can almost remember the last 5 mins of the united game!
But other stuff like writing that longish post (for my standards) on here sayin I was ok, I have no memory of at all. Weird!
Just had a lush breakfast and my cannula removed. The surgeon came in to chat and said it was a success, there was a "huge amount" of scar tissue from the original injury which was in the ankle joint and getting caught while I was trying to move, and he's removed it all! He's got pictures to show me when I have my follow up appointment in 2 weeks, I'll try and grab a copy of them to shove on here!
Just waiting for nurse to come change my bandage and then for a physio guy to come talk to me about the next few months now!
StayDead wrote:I've had a hernia for the past year and a half if not longer. It's in one side of the tubes where the testicles come out from when you're developing in the womb so I've got a weird lump in my pelvis area. I've been to the doctor and he confirmed what it was, I was bricking myself when I first found it, I thought it was something more serious.
I was meant to go in for the operation to have it sorted but my mum ended up in hospital so I couldn't have it done as I'd be alone the days afterwards (need someone with you or something). It doesn't hurt very often and the doctor told me he's had one for 40 years. I really should get it checked out again and sorted but I hate hospitals and I'm scared of the idea of having an operation for some reason.
"Inguinal hernia."
I once saw a man who's hernia became so large his intestines ended up in his scrotum. It was enormous.
Not sure if this is the right place but anyone know what sort of soft lump in the front of the shin might be? Wierd one, can't really see it unless i tense my leg but it's been getting really painful this past couple of weeks and is causing pain and a bit of a burning feel over the front of my leg (i feel nothing when i push it though).
Anything to worry about or nothing?
(i have two other soft lumps lower down belowit but they've been around a while and caused no pain).
Death's Head wrote:Looks like out of all the current entries, I win. I was in hospitlal around 9 years ago with a collapsed lung. This was a relatively straight forward procedure which involved having a bottle attached to my chest via a tube and staying in hospital for 5 days whilst my lung repaired itself.
In Jan this year I had it collapse again and after the simpler procedure (syringe in chest) failed to give the desired results (I.e. Lung restoration) I had to go back in for the previous procedure. However, much to my horror, I discovered that the guidelines say that if you have a 2nd collapsed lung (same one) you have to have an operation to attach the lung to your inner chest wall to prevent it from happening again
I did protest, but different doctors/surgeons/specialists there all told me the same thing so I eventually agreed. I'd never had an anaesthetic before or operation and when I had to sign a consent form the night before (where possible outcomes included death) I was a bit to say the least. That isn't exactly the end of the story, but I'll save the next installment for another time.....
I think Melatonin's had that done.
I can't remember exactly, but I think they basically just damage the outside of your lung enough that it causes adhesions with the chest wall.
Death's Head - yeah, that's exactly what I had done, and honestly, the biggest thing you have to be concerned about is staving off boredom for the week after the operation. The operation itself is much as Harry described, involving the removal of a 'slippery' lining between the lung and chest wall, and then effectively attaching the top of the lungs to the wall itself, so the whole spontaneously-collapsing thing no longer occurs. Unfortunately, while you're out cold for that part, there's a somewhat galling moment when you wake up and realise you have two rather sizeable tubes coming out of your chest (the same thing as what Death's Head described), draining both air and blood away from the space around your lungs.
It looks like this. I'll spoiler the rest of this post, and this is a warning - there is blood involved here.
No, seriously. Not for the squeamish.
That's the tube coming out of my chest...
...and that's where it leads. That bucket is then connected to the wall, which effectively means you're tethered to around a one metre radius around your bed, for around five days or so. Different people probably have different ways of dealing with this. Me, I looked out of the window. A lot.
But in terms of pain - don't even worry about it. You obviously don't feel a thing while you're out, if it's the same procedure as I went through then you'll wake up with an epidural attached meaning you literally can't feel anything in the whole torso area, and for the week or so afterwards they were kind enough to hook me up with one of these...
...which was essentially a self-administering morphine device in the style of a watch, which lets you regulate your own pain relief. You can't abuse it too much - it's locked to one small dose every fifteen minutes or so, and the worst thing that happened to me was throwing up after dosing too much (I was showing it off to a friend who came to visit me. )
So yeah. Surgery - nothing to worry about. The week afterwards - bring a good book or twelve.
Venom wrote:Say what you want but if this Halo TV series is a BIG BUDGET Game of Thrones style series with Spielberg directly producing this could be a Band of Brothers in space.
I had surgery on both my achilles tendons when I was about 10 in an attempt to make walking easier (my muscular condition was only just starting to affect my legs at this stage), had both legs in casts for about two months afterwards then had to wear custom moulded leg splints to walk.
It wasn't too successful but it gave me a couple more years before I needed to permanently use a wheelchair.