"Surgeons of reddit, what was your first surgery on a real living human like?" –– This was today's burning question from Redditor Cloverload and our suspicions that surgeons tend to get excited around blood have been confirmed.
Are you surprised?
The adrenaline rush is a thing, you see, and we must be thankful to surgeons for all their time and expertise. Doctors also weighed in.
Warning: If you're easily grossed out, you might want to keep a barf bag at the ready.
"Had so much training..."
Pretty routine to be honest. Had so much training leading up to it and a senior surgeon standing by offering advice and reassurance as needed that it felt almost the same as training. Helped that it was a fairly basic and routine surgery with very little risk.
"My first day of clinical rotation..."
GiphyMy first day of clinical rotation I scrubbed in a crash c section.
There. Was. So. Much. Blood.
It was kind of awesome though.
"Currently in school..."
Currently in school and experienced the WEIRDEST thing during my first major surgery assisting.
Scrubbed in a le fort 1 downfracture, osteotomy and sinus lift. Basically, a le fort 1 is when they peel the gingiva (your gums) on your maxilla (upper jaw) back then use a sawsall to cut cut from behind the bone that support your last tooth, up, and over through your nasal bone and across. Then they do a "downfracture" which means they intentionally break your upper jaw and push it down towards your lower jaw. They now have access to your sinuses where they can clean them out and get rid of cysts/do whatever they need to do. They then screw your upper jaw back in place with plates and put you back together. Its a very routine surgery.
So basically 1mo into school and I went to go shadow my friend who was a resident at the time. He pulls me into this surgery and next I know i'm holding these metal retractors and pulling this guys upper lip back as much as possible. No shit this guys nose is up by his forehead and I'm looking down this guys nasal septum as they saw his face in half. It went fine. But at one point I remember my vision just cut out. Like it just went gray. I could hear. I didn't feel faint or like anything.
I felt absolutely fine but at some point I was like "ugh guys, not to bother you but I cant see anything." Of course, for them it's not uncommon to have students passing out all over the place. They asked if i needed to sit down and I said that I felt fine, I just couldn't see anything. A nurse brought a chair over and helped me sit down as a precaution and the next thing I knew I could see again perfectly fine. Its not even like my vision "came back" like a saw it do so, more like after 10 sec of sitting there I realized that I could see again. So I just stood back up and we finished closing the pt up.
Truly truly bizarre experience. Not to make a false equivalence but I can only describe it as a brief conversion disorder but I hadn't experienced any sort of trauma that would cause it. Posting because maybe there's someone else who have experienced it. Maybe my brain saw the pt's head in half and was like "oh boy, you ain't wanna see this" and cut the cord even though I'm consciously fine with blood and gore.
"I distinctly remember..."
Not a surgeon, but medical student is pretty close. My first operation was a C-section. I wasn't running the show, but I was what they call 'first assist' meaning I'm the first person on deck if the surgeons hands are occupied. Mostly I was just holding retractors which are curved metal tools that you use to pull back on the skin or whatever might get in the surgeon's way. I distinctly remember not wanting to pull too hard on the retractors but I got scolded for not pulling hard enough. Turns out you can pull as hard as you like, skin is tough shit. Also, when you perform a c-section you need to split open the amniotic sack, which contains a whole lot of fluid. I didn't put on shoe covers because I was so excited to scrub in the first time. My shoes got drenched. I lost a set of shoes, but I learned a valuable lessons about shoe-covers that day.
"I had watched it many times..."
My first surgery alone was an amputation. I was in the ER and the chief told me to go amputate a diabetic foot, so I asked who should I go with(I was just a 1st year cx resident), and he said go alone. I was scared shitless jaja but its a simple procedure, I had watched it many times and assisted, and the scrub nurse was super helpful. At the end I took a picture of the necrotic foot after it was amputated, it just looked so unreal, like out of the walking dead. My first surgery ever as a resident was a fourniers gangrena. Nastiest ever, I can still remember the smell.
"It's all just meat..."
It's not a big deal. They're asleep and draped and you're only looking at the point of entry into the body and the relevant tissues inside. It's all just meat when they're on the table, just gotta put all that meat back together nicely and not harm any vital meat.
"The first operations..."
Well the first surgery I was in the room for was after I graduated high school. My best friend who was also interested in becoming a physician went with me and it was an arthroscopy at an orthopedic surgery center. When the surgeon put the camera into the joint space, my friend got nauseated and sat down against the wall. He's a lawyer now.
The first operations I assisted with as a medical student were spinal fusions in adults and children with neurosurgeons and then pediatric orthopedic surgeons followed by breast reductions and cleft lip and palette surgeries in plastics. With the breasts they let me help peel the skin from the breast tissue to make the pedicle that would become the new breast tissue form.
On kids with severe cerebral palsy needing spinal fusions for posture I would take the spinal joint facets from the back table and separate bone from cartilage and give it back to use as bone graft after they secured the vertebrae to a rod placed into the hips with metal wires. Then I would help sew closed the skin running up and down the back. The adult spinal fusions were similar, had academic discussions and touched almost nothing other than retracting skin.
In plastics when they did facial reconstructions or created tissue flaps to repair cleft lips and palates I basically observed and touched nothing but it was inspirational my cool and the surgeons doing that work were worldly and wise and good at conversation.
After that I did c-sections and delivered babies and did a ton of prenatal care on Obstetric/gynecology clerkship, and assistant with vascular bypasses on the legs of smokers on my general surgery clerkship.
Ultimately after some training in most surgical specialties I decided on general surgery as a career. These days I make individualized sculptures from people's stomachs to assist their weight management goals, remove dysfunctional organs, repair Injuries from car accidents, gunshots, and stabbings, and do a fair amount of life coaching for people with chronic illness related to lifestyle choices.
"My gloves filled up with sweat..."
First surgery was an emergency ruptured diaphragm from being hit by a car. The senior surgeon was on break and they rushed in without any warning and we had to go. My gloves filled up with sweat and got sloshy. But I got the abdomen open could see a straight up hole where the diaphragm has blown out. By this point we are bagging the patient ( squeezing the reservoir oxygen bag to force oxygen into a non breathing patient ) because there's no vacuum in the chest cavity once it's opened to air and the little sacs deflate and stick shut. Perfect timing, the senior came in and repaired the hole and sucked the oxygen out of the chest cavity to create the vacuum again and I bagged the patient and I felt like puking as the adrenaline wore off and I got the shakes.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.