I know from past posts that many here have put in their own stitches, pulled their own teeth when needed, etc.
For example, IIRC Frank has done more than a few self stitches, and Luka has pulled a couple of teeth.
QuerY: what is most you have done.?
Short list here:
Have put multiple stitches in my leg and glued some bad cuts on hand together.
Have filed off chipped teeth vs. bothering to go to dentist
Cut out ingrown toenail,
Burned out warts with liquid N2 and red hot nail (the nail actually works better).
When a really poor kid, broke my glasses once and reground the edges of an old pair to fit the newer frames.
Carved on palm of hand for 15 min with scalpel to get really big splinter out.
Built exercise rig and did own therapy after rotator cuff surgery, wuda been a real pain to drive to therapy.
Never had to set my own broken bone, luckily have never broken one.
Replies
I had a temporary filling that was to high so I ground it down with a dremel.
I, respectfully, hope this thread really doesn't go on too long....
...shiver.
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Spayed my own cat once.
I was an Animal Science Major, wanted to go to Vet School, but didn't make the cut. Reproductive Physiology was an interesting class, so, well, what the heck !
Greg
thats funny, i wonder if its against the law to practice medicine on a cat?
"Spayed my own cat once."LOLI have a theory that most everything we say has been said before. Obviously there has to be someone who said it first, 2 examples:"I'm thirsty" is a very old saying.
"My Ipod is broke" a relatively new saying.You may be the first for that sentence. Thanks for the laugh.
Kevin
Then you'll love this one, Doc ... I used Starting Fluid for anesthesia ! Worked, too ! For Repro class, we got reproductive tracts from the slaughter house - Man, you wouldn't believe how big a Jersey cow uterus is !Greg
Anybody my age who had surgery as a youngster may remember open drop ether. Ether is still found in starter fluid. Once you've smelled that, the memory NEVER goes away. What a horrible experience. Basically they put a mask over your mouth and face and poured ether onto it until you went to sleep. It induces BAD dreams and makes you puke your guts up when you wake up which is just perfect for some little kid who just had his tonsils removed by a snare which was like a balling gun and to whom was promised unending ice cream. I've added that "all the ice cream you want" to the three big lies.
"I've added that "all the ice cream you want" to the three big lies."
LOL! You too, huh?
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
i thought the cat thing was funny too. i can just picture the image, disgruntled vet student (didn't make the cut) with that look on his face, didn't make the cut huh, I'll show them...
disgruntled vet student (didn't make the cut)
I met a bricklayer who told me over a brew that if one of his cats dies, he does an autopsy to find out why it died.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
"I met a bricklayer who told me over a brew that if one of his cats dies, he does an autopsy to find out why it died."
I can just see it: "Hmmm. Must have been too much lime in the mortar."
More likely, "death due to 'autopsy by bricklayer' ". ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
how about death due to botched neutering by failed vet candidate.
yeah it takes all kinds. i am surprised there isn't a law against that. does the society for prevention of cruelty to dead animals exist? SPCDA?
Had a customer tell me a while back he does all his tomcats. Puts them in a burlap bag, swings them around his head till they are disoriented, flips them on their backs and slices them with a clean razor blade. Sez by the time they come out of it, they don't even know what happened.
I've done necropsies on some of my pet guinea pigs when they died.One that died young (only 2 years old) had an dilated heart and a localized pancreatic infection. One that died at a ripe age for a guinea pig (age 6 or so) had chronic scarring of his kidneys. One died of a bowel obstruction due to adhesions following surgery for a bladder stone and ovarian cyst (a veterinarian did the surgery, not me). One that I had a vet do the necropsy on had some chronic inflammation of the colon that the vet said could have been due to salmonella.Rebeccah
chronic inflammation of the colon?
constipated to death! what a terrible way to die.
"constipated to death! what a terrible way to die."You have no idea. I felt so sorry for her. A loop of her small intestine had passed through a narrow area where another loop was stuck to the surgical site due to scarring; twisted on itself, and then gotten stuck that way. It cut off the blood supply, so that stuck loop of bowel basically died, causing peritonitis (an infection of the entire abdominal cavity).She had been doing fairly OK for about a week after surgery, had a day or so with a much improved appetite, and then rapidly went downhill. The vet prescribed morphine for her, which I gave her around the clock. I'm not sure it helped much, frankly. She only lasted a couple more days once she took the turn for the worse.Rebeccah
I met a bricklayer who told me over a brew that if one of his cats dies, he does an autopsy to find out why it died.
IMERC, does that!
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.” Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. -Truman Capote
Yes...I heard Marty reads the entrails to determine what the Spirits are thinking. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
you can't make this s##t up! Buddy of mine practices in Amish country. Had one guys say he put WD40 on his stiff shoulder, "It works to loosen up stuck nuts and bolts"
I knew a guy who did that too. I thought wd 40 was a solvent but it turns out it's fish oil. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
I'm an EM doctor so this may not count, but I stapled my own head a couple of months ago after dropping a 2 x 12 on it. Back at work in 10 minutes. I've given myself dental blocks for a toothache. It's not as gruesome as it sounds, because you can numb the oral mucosa easily before giving yourself the shot. It works better than pills. Having topical anesthetic for the eye is a godsend for eye sissies like myself when it comes to removing foreign bodies
I sutured a friends hand in NC and he only put Oragel in the cut. He even asked for another suture after I put in four.
BTW you would be surprised what doesn't need stitches. You close a wound to make it look better, heal faster, stop bleeding, improve function or decrease the chance of infection. But, there is no wound that can't be revised later and some lacerations should be left open to begin with and closed later. This is an old technique that is not utilized enough. An oyster shell cut on the foot would be a good example of one that should be handled by delayed primary closure. The longer I'm in this business, the less I suture and the more I use alternative techniques e.g. Dermabond, staples, steri strips or nothing.
Most nail gun injuries are treated by simply pulling the nail out with side cutters ( if it's work related, the most important aspect of getting me to do it is the documentation, not the actual yanking it out. )
Georgia chrome works well on most cuts; ask any carpet installer. It doesn't breath very well, but you get the point.
I think there are much better tools for pulling nails than side cutters. If you came at me with a pair of those, I'd probably ask you if you minded if I got something better out of my truck. The tool I'd be thinking about (I don't actually own one) would be more like a dent puller. I'd want to grab the head of the nail, then drive it out with the weight. What did you mean about Georgia chrome works? Give us some good ER scoops, woodja? Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
"I think there are much better tools for pulling nails than side cutters"I've used vice grips, but if the nail goes into bone, what works best is putting a drill on it. Use the side cutters to bite off the head first.Rebeccah
Thanks for that tip. I hadn't thought about the twisting action to remove a nail. I was only envisioning pulling it straight out with a heavy weight and force.I guess I'll pass on that ER job.
Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
better tools for pulling nails
Kicking apart pallets one time, saw board coming for face and stuck up hand to stop it, 12D ring shank nail straight thru palm.
Tried to just pull it out, AMAZING what the holding power of ring shanks in human flesh is.
Had to hammer the nail back out part ways, then use a crowbar on the far side of the attached pallet board to get it out. Never any infection or pain suprisingly.
Had a guy one time who shot his ankle with a ring shank nail. Drove it deep into the talar bone with just a wee bit of the head sticking above his boot leather. We sedated him and I grabbed it with the pliers and pulled Just about pulled him off the stretcher. Got two guys to hold him and pulled again. The ankle bowed toward me and I planted my foot on the stretcher and pulled harder. We could all feel the grating vibration as the nail came out.
Jay Leno mentioned this one last night on the Tonight show:
An Austrian workman who slipped while working on a house nailed his own testicle to the roof with a nail gun.
August Voegl, 59, from Jennersdorf, shot the four-inch nail into his left testicle with the compressed air nail gun.
He was unable to extract it or pull himself away from the roof.
Emergency medics were called in to separate the man from the roof after which he was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he is reportedly recovering well after surgery.
Airlift, please tell me why he was exposed to the added danger of helo transport. A shot straight thru the scrotum might be pretty benign, but if it hit a bullseye on the testicle, that might put a real damper on the situation. BTW, one testicle works as well as two, but it's nice to be symmetrical and have a spare.
I've never seen a nail gun with 4 inch nails, but then again I'm DIY
whats Georgia chrome???
Hey...I asked first! Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Blue,Same thing as Arkansas chrome.KK
your older u should know. im young and dumb trying to gain knowledge. ;)
Duct tape! ask me how i know. :)
whats Georgia chrome???
duct tape
Edited 6/13/2008 7:00 am ET by Chucky
Georgi chrome is what we more civilized Floridians call duct tape. You see it on the cars from GA holding body parts together.
I've heard of an Oklahoma Credit Card (rubber hose) but had never heard of Georgia ChromeI've said this before but you really do learn something new everyday on this siteThanks again!
I,m not much good at self doctoring.One finger is terminally crooked from a 2x10 rollover and a thumb has a nasty numb scar it's length from table saw shrapnel. I know a fellow who pulled his own abcessed tooth and the infection goo went to the optical nerve. Wears dark glasses and carrys a cane now. Hindsight: the finger could have been aDIY, the thumb a definite pro job and abcessed teeth can actually kill.
I got a splinter in my finger as the result of hand sanding a old dry pine floor in an old old house
The splinter was pretty deep and my finger swelled up
I tried to dig it out but couldn't
I didn't have the money to go to the doctor
I took tylenol every day for a month
The finger was throbbing
I did not have a dishwasher and one evening while doing the dishes and my hand soaking in the warm water, I looked at the splinter and it had pushed out !!!
So I pulled it with tweezers
Wow what a relief and it healed up quickly
So what are you saying, do the dishes?
When ever I get some form of infection in my fingers or hand, that's exactly what I do. Get the water as hot as you can stand. Clears it up real fast, frequently the next day. Repeat as necessary.
I always wondered how a doctor would remove a deep splinter (if I would have gone for medical treatment like I probably should have)
they slice it open! I know because it happened to me.
Hi,I've pulled lots of splinters but have mostly managed to avoid anything really serious. Though now that I think of it I did manage to cut myself deeply on the inside of my elbow by using an Olfa knife improperly which broke suddenly at a fracture point and sliced through the skin where your nerve and artery to your hand runs. Thankfully it didn't go deep enough. I went to the hospital for that one. I don't want to make this a comparison between U.S. and Canadian health care systems. Ours has it's faults, particularly a doctor shortage as a result of poor provincial government decisions to reduce med school enrolment ten years ago, amongst other things. That said I can't help but think this thread is a good argument for universal health care, especially since those who work in the trades are generally self-employed or work for small businesses where health plans may not be available.Cheers,Andrew
A person that doesn't havbe any health insurance is nuts!
My splinter was a 2 inch piece of douglas fir. We tryed for an hour on the job site to remove(ouch)
Personally I hate the idea of universal care, our gov. as well as yours has screwed up most everything they have touched. Massive number of paper pushers. I just cringe when I think of the gov. taking over almost 20% of the economy.
I had the same type situation on a rather thick chunk of wood that ran up the base of my thumb to the first joint. It hurt like hell and stiffened everthing up for a few days. I got a fever and sore throat and decided that the next day, I'd go see a doctor. In the morning, the fever broke and the sore throat dissappeared, so I skipped the Dr. About a month later, after I pulled the leather scap off every day, the head poked out. My bro grabbed it with the tweazers and it slid right out. I've avoided injury in a very big way. It must because I work safer than most. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
I cleaned the poison out of my system (both ends) by drinking 20 shots of tequila.
Billy
When I was around 14 - 15, I managed to sink a small fishook into a finger past the barb. I wrapped the finger tightly with fishing line and waited for it to go numb then pushed the hook through so I could clip off the barb and pull it back out.
Even numbed, it hurt like blazes and it took quite a while. - lol
Did the same thing with a rotator cuff. Made the "ladder" and everything.
Pulled many a splinter, used butterflies on bad cuts.
Popped in dislocated fingers and one little toe. Just tape'em to the next'un.
Had to make a crutch once when I damn near broke my ankle while 3-4 miles from my truck looking for fence corners. Good thing I had a machete and could drag my adze over to a mesquite and cut a limb off. Bulls in that pasture made me nervous.
I had a buddy from England that used to put in his own stitches. I watched while he stitched up his eyebrow with needle and thread.
He also did his own piercings. I'll put this as delicate as I can...he pierced his own private part. And then a couple of years later, when he had to leave the country in a hurry (another story), he removed it himself in the bathroom of a local pub before going thru the metal detectors.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Once when I lived in San Diego I had this girlfriend break up with me who I had been planning to ask to marry. I hadn't bought the ring yet, because at that point in my life, even Tony Soprano wouldn't approve me for a loan. I moped around for a few days, playing and replaying the girl's messages on my answering machine's cassette tape until it broke, and watching my whole world fall in around my ears, and diagnosed myself with CLINICAL DEPRESSION. Nowadays, I see that proper treatment should have included Valiums, mood stabilizers, counseling, and, possibly, beta blockers,.. .
But for reasons of my own, I couldn't do all that back then, so I hopped on the trolley line down to San Ysidro, walked over to Tijuana and stayed up all night drinking Tequila shooters at one of those outdoor bar-cafes. Early in the morning, things get blurry and I must have slept at some point because I remember waking up and wondering where the fat Mexican woman who had been twirling around with the brightly-colored foam lizard on a stick had went to. Walking back to San Ysidro in the early dawn, I noticed that almost all of my money was gone but Doing the Math to try to figure out where it went was impossible. The bad smells of Tijuana seemed particularly intense to me, causing me to barf four times before crossing the border back to the USA. Just before immigrations and customs, I bought a five dollar one litre bottle of cold water from a street vendor that included a 300 percent tip with my emergency $20 bill because he couldn't make change for a twenty, and the water was just that good. The lurching of the trolley ride seemed determined to roll my head right off my shoulders, but now I see now that the pain I was feeling just meant that healing was occuring. When I got back to the "Park and Ride" parking lot, I noticed that someone had broken into my car during the night and stolen my stereo. Also the battery was dead in the car and it wouldn't start. And my favorite cassette at the time, one that I particularly liked to listen to while feeling most sorry for myself, Neil Young's "Live Rust," which I believe had been in the car stereo when stolen, was laying on the ground beside the driver's side, submerged in a mud puddle.
But the good news was that I had forgotten about being sad about the girl, and was cured.
FIY,if it happens again don't try the Valium and Beta blockers. They are NOT indicated for depression.If you're going to p*ss and moan, use good country music and long neck bottles. I have a list: He Stopped Loving Her Today by George "possum face, cocaine" Jones, Farewell Party by Gene Watson, Set Em Up Joe by Vern Gosdin, Hello Darlin' by Conway Twitty, Hello Wall by Faron Young you get the idea. This only applies if you're white. Different list if you're black.
Pulling my own tooth? The thought of that does bother me.
I've set my own broken bone and given myself stitches twice.
The worst was when I got burned up pretty badly on my legs/arms/face, the official tally was 37% of my body.
I did my own debriding. The nurses were just to busy to do what I considered to be a thorough job, so for a few weeks I cleaned myself. It totally freaked out the docs, nurses and others in the burn ward.
But I did a pretty darn good job, in that I healed well and have virtually no scarring.
Paging Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine...
Mongo
Believe me, when the tooth pain is bad enough, pulling the tooth is a relief.Use needlenose vicegrips. Best to pad the jaws with carboard from a crackerbox, or something similar.I broke one, and had to take it out in several pieces.Debriding yourself had to have been worlds worse.~~~I've taken out huge splinters. And tiny ones. Removed my own stitches. Removed my own toenail. Also excised my own infected ingrown toenails. Dug and dug and dug and dug on a wart, until it was all gone. Other things of the sort. I never considered any of that to be "diy medical". Just what needed to be done.
Politics: the blind insulting the blind.
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Believe me, when the tooth pain is bad enough, pulling the tooth is a relief.
Luka, I've been there and truer words have never been spoken!
I was working construction way back when I was 19 and I had a tooth ache that brought me to my knees. I took a 16p nail and stuck it in the cavity and broke the tooth out, didn't feel any worse then what I was experiencing. When I did finally go to the dentist he thought I was freaking crazy but that pain has no match and I couldn't take it any more.
Doug
What is debriding? Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Debriding is removing dead tissue. If you leave the dead tissue it can interfere with the healing and result in scarring.My arsenal was tweezers, a scalpel, and scrubbing with the medical version of those scrubby scotch brite pads.Not fun. But it's not like I had anything else to occupy my days.Getting burned badly can really really really really really ruin your day. Especially when you have a 1-year old who still wants to jump on Daddy's lap and play.
Have set a couple of minor bone breaks (collarbones; not much setting involved, actually) and removed a cast from my left arm which was preventing me from doing work that had to be done.
But I was relatively good; I cut the cast off in two halves with a matte knife, ate the drugs the doc had given me for pain to allow me to work, then strapped the cast halves back on with an Ace bandage when I was finished. Wrist healed fine, eventually....
I think I also yanked a loose tooth when I was a kid using the classic 'string-and-doorknob' technique. Got my baby brother to slam the door 'cause my sister threatened to tell Mom I was trying to cheat the Tooth Fairy.
I've taken out my own stitches. Not a big deal. Pulling off a dead or dying finger/toe nail hurts worse than that.
I also stapled myself shut a time or two, including once when it wasn't intentional and the stapler was an HT-65, not a medical skin-stapler....
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
I'm waiting for someone to say they've done "do it yourself" brain surgery by reading some kind of book or magazine article
Hey, you could save money that way
Tried to remove rusted metal from my eye w/ a clean sowing needle......after digging around for about 30 min. still had to go to Dr. and have it drilled out.......can any one say SAFETY GLASSES
We use what is like a small Dremel tool to remove embedded FB. It has a 0.5 mm sterile metal burr and it lifts out the foreign body easily and the resultant rust ring is then more or less whittled away.
Metal is usually what we see. If you get something in your eye and you can't get it out after 30 minutes then come on in. If you wait the piece just kind of hunkers down and causes more staining and goes deeper.
A few years back I waited 3 miserable days before going to have one carved out.
From the receiving end...it was one of the weirdest experiences. Once your eyeball is numbed out, your vision distorts as the doc is grinding and pushing, but you can't feel a thing. Really creepy.
On myself, I've really only done little stuff (I was an orthopaedic surgeon in a previous life, so I've done much more to others):
- digging out splinters, none of them particularly large, mostly using a sewing needle.
- removing portions of toenails affected with fungus, and thinning the surrounding nail enough to allow topical antifungal liquid to be effective. I've done this twice over about 10 years, and successfully cleared up the infection without need of oral medication both times.
- digging out plantar warts until they resolved (long time ago).
- removal of tartar using dentist-like instruments that the lay person can buy.
- steri-stripping of minor lacerations. I haven't ever needed to give myself stitches/staples.
- treatment of ingrown toenails and paronychia (infection involving the area around the nail)
- when I was a resident and had a wicked sore throat *and* a cough that was triggered by air moving across the back of my throat, I picked up a spray bottle of topical anesthetic in the ER that they used for placing NG tubes, and sprayed the back of my own throat. Worked like a charm.
- I have of course rehabbed my own sprained ankles and rotator cuff tendinitis and plantar fasciitis and patellofemoral syndrome.
Rebeccah
Edited 6/14/2008 1:22 am by Rebeccah
rehabbed my own ...plantar fasciitis
DW has that, has feet on ice at least 1/2 hour every day, best the docs have told here is that and dont stand - right. Any other DIY suggestions for PF?
I had PF for as long as I can remember. Pretty much all my life.Also all my life, I had been most comfortable in bed, with my feet kind of 'hooked' over the end of the bed, or in the blankets, etc.This causes the toes and the ball of the foot, to be pulled down, away from the knee.I heard someone say they had gotten PF from being in the swimming pool too much. (Constantly standing on tip-toe, in the deeper waters.) I realized that the one factor the same, was that the toes, and the ball of the foot were being stretched down, away from the knee.So, I changed just the one habit. I started 'hooking' my feet in the opposite direction. So that the toes and the ball of my foot were being stretched upward, toward the knee.It took less than two months for the PF to go completely away.After nearly a year, I started noticing new pains. Coming from the bottom of my foot, at the ball, around the inside, and up toward the ankle.I then started making sure that my feet are pretty much relaxed in bed. No tension in either direction. No more pain...
Politics: the blind insulting the blind.
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Luka's got the most important part - stretching and changing habits that work against the stretching.If you've had plantar fasciitis, you know the pain is worst when you first get up in the morning and stand up and try to walk away from the bed. I'm flexible enough that I can bend down and put my palms flat on the floor with straight knees, so when I had plantar fasciitis, before I got up in the morning I would lie on my back, grab my big toe, and slowly straighten my leg. Then repeat on the other foot, and keep repeating until it stopped hurting to do it. *Then* I would get out of bed. It helped a lot.In the early phases of treatment, especially for someone that does a lot of walking, I often recommended wearing shoes with about a 1" heel (like cowboy boots), to decrease the stress on the fascia during the day. And nonsteroidal antiinflammatories (Motrin) help, too. And there would be a strengthening routine for the foot muscles as well as the stretching exercises for the fascia. I'm a big fan of barefoot activity for strengthening the foot muscles that support the arch.But the single most important factor is frequent stretching, particularly before you load the fascia by standing on it. There are night braces that you can buy to keep your ankle in a dorsiflexed (toes up) position while you sleep, but I've never tried them.RebeccahRebeccah
It's always a hoot to have one's empirical observation and theoretic skills, substantiated.;o)Thank you.As usual, it hadn't even occurred to me to google, or otherwise research. I just formed a theory and tested it, and it worked.=0)I'm thinking that those night braces, if worn every night,could eventually lead to replacing the PF, with the other pains I noticed.
Politics: the blind insulting the blind.
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The father of my girlfriend when I was in college was an emergency room doc and he did his own vasectomy.
The father of my girlfriend when I was in college was an emergency room doc and he did his own vasectomy.
I'm sorry, I need to go ice down my equipment after reading that.
I've not read the rest of this thread but why does the title seem a little "Victorian"??????
Extracted a piece of nail in the white of my eye with a rare earth magnet!! Shot a finishing nail in my palm when shouting miters together. Just pulled it out with pliers ( Just skin- No bone ). Table saw to the pinky in highschool shop (not to bad but a wake up call).
-Lou
junkhound.
I made my own cast for a broken bone.
I shattered my arm when a table saw kicked back on me.. went into the emergency room rightaway and they showed me the broken bone. Everything was pretty well back in alignment and the floating piece was back in contact. (with a little manipulation on their part) (I was heavily drugged so felt nothing) However My HMO couldn't get an opening for another 6 days at their Bone doctor.. So they put me in a temporary cast and sent me home.. when the doc. looked at the break he decided I couldn't go into a cast yet because I still had infection in the broken skin.. so back in the temp cast for another week.. at this point when I went in I asked the doc for a 2 piece cast so I could remove it and wash the area so it wouldn't drive me nuts with itching he wouldn't. So against medical advice I kept my temp cast and went home and made my own two piece.. If you ever do it I caution you.. plaster of paris gets real warm when it hardens so use a nice wool blanket tightly wrapped to isolate your skin from the cast..
Even at that It warmed up enough to give redden the skin like a sun burn..
But I had my 2 piece cast and taped it together for two more weeks when I returned the X ray looked pretty decent to my untrained eye although the doctor kept tsssk tsssking me and shaking his head telling me I was lucky etc..
Frenchy,
I like that a lot and admire you. I could never tell anyone professionally to do such a thing, but of course you can make your own cast. Next time use fiberglass with a cotton wrap between you and the glass.Malpractice "rules" prevent ED docs from putting on circumferential casts. I'm old enough to have been trained to do them and in fact applied casts for many years and reduced most fractures in the ED. What you suggest of putting on the cast then splitting it would be an acceptable compromise in my book.Some fractures don't need casting to heal. The cast in some cases is there to prevent further injury and help with pain, but they would do fine if not casted and treated "gently" for several weeks. My dad was a doctor and I broke my arm in a wringer washer (bet not too many people remember those) when I was 6 and he didn't even X-ray it for a week until I kept whining about it. Truth is, it was a torus fx and would have done just fine if left alone. As it was, we went on vacation and I got the thing wet and stunk up the joint with my sweaty little body and funk skin schmutz under the cast. He cut it off and that was the end of that.
MGMaxwell,
My brother was a transplant surgeon and I watched him enough times to know that I could actaully do that sort of thing myself. (in a dire emergency if I had a spare organ) <grin> The actual procedure isn't really that complicated. The medical training required to understand all of the complications and etc. certainly is. As is the decision to transplant or let a patient go.
There is a whole lot of training and judgement required there.. But the actual surgery isn't really that difficult with a little practice and the right equipment. If you've ever watch watch combat nurses without the doctors training finish up on surgery you understand how the procedure becomes realatively straight forward..
View Image
;o)
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