Small medical procedures you've carried out on yourself

[Drago]

What about that chap who was trapped in a canyon by a falling rock and chopped his own arm off to escape? That took some gumption.

 

[DaveReading]

What about that chap who was trapped in a canyon by a falling rock and chopped his own arm off to escape? That took some gumption.

Yes, but he was in a hard place ...

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

What about that chap who was trapped in a canyon by a falling rock and chopped his own arm off to escape? That took some gumption.

Aron Ralston - his book is a great read. He was very methodical with how he went about it, leaving the nerve(s) until last... but by that time his penknife was getting a bit blunt.

 

[gbb]

With the help of a colleague (who was ex army)
Id hit my finger with a lump hammer, incredible pain and pressure under my nail, already going black .
'You need to drill that, release the pressure' he proffered.
So much pain, i agreed. He produced a fine drillbit, i was expecting it to be done by hand but no, he starts putting it in the pillar drill.
Im starting to feel reluctant
Dont worry he said, we used to do it in the army all the time.

So we gingerly lowered the spinning bit and it worked, blood oozed out of my nail, genuinely feeling better.
He then turned to the other guys avidly watching and announced...
'Ive never done that before '

 

[neil_merseyside]

in the pillar drill.

Did that to myself several times as an apprentice toolmaker, great when it wasn't your dominant thumb (usually was) as you could easily be slow, careful and accurate, but when you needed to do your 'best' thumb it was often better to have someone else to do it - pick who wisely...

 

[Accy cyclist]

Another incident where i picked metal staples out of myself was when i worked at the then famous E J Riley snooker table makers in Accrington in the late 1970's. It was a boring mind numbing production line job where i stapled the green baize onto the table cushions. One day i was day dreaming and didn't move my fingers after tucking in the baize, before i used the staple gun! About 15 staples went into my left hand fingers and thumb.

 

[slowmotion]

What about that chap who was trapped in a canyon by a falling rock and chopped his own arm off to escape? That took some gumption.

I heard that a doctor who looked him over after his escape said "Unfortunately his future career as a surgeon ended just as it began."

 

[Accy cyclist]

I stitched up a bullet wound in my own thigh, having used whiskey as an antisepctic and anaesthetic.

I also reset a compound fracture in my old chap, and used 2 x fence posts as splints. The splinters were quite sensual.

And following a really bad hangover I used a Makita hammer drill for a bit of self trepanning.

Yeah but could you do this?

 

[Sittingduck]

Seriously making me wince reading these, keep em coming please.
I must be very lucky else have lead a sheltered life, 45 and never broken a bone or even had a filling…

 

[Drago]

Pulled a fork out of my buttocks following a fight at Woodbourne. Does that count as surgery?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes, but he was in a hard place ...

He wasn’t he was between…

 

[gbb]

Pulled a fork out of my buttocks following a fight at Woodbourne. Does that count as surgery?

Not really relevent but it reminded me of how coppering has changed.
Dad, born 1930 in Bristol, the docks being a notoriously tough place back then apparently, his mum n dad had a lodger, the local copper who was apparently a big fella. If a big fight broke out in a pub, theyd send for Ralph (the copper lodger)...he would walk in, size up who was the biggest fella fighting.....and floor him.
Apparently it seemed to quieten the rest of them down

 

[Dirk]

I removed 13 stitches from a dog bite wound on my wrist when I was 12 years old. They were itching like mad and the wound had healed nicely. Razor blade and tweezers did the job.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Not really relevent but it reminded me of how coppering has changed.
Dad, born 1930 in Bristol, the docks being a notoriously tough place back then apparently, his mum n dad had a lodger, the local copper who was apparently a big fella. If a big fight broke out in a pub, theyd send for Ralph (the copper lodger)...he would walk in, size up who was the biggest fella fighting.....and floor him.
Apparently it seemed to quieten the rest of them down

Steve Earle has a similar thoughts, possibly concerning his own time in Prison, for Heroin offences
Heard between 0:55 & 1:10

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMCJJkIR4pY

 

[lazybloke]

Aron Ralston - his book is a great read. He was very methodical with how he went about it, leaving the nerve(s) until last... but by that time his penknife was getting a bit blunt.

Oh yes - read that a few years ago, very good. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", IIRC.
A surprisingly gripping film too.

The book and film of "Touching the Void" is another good one; the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates and their mountaineering nightmare.

And if you have a strong stomach, the movie "Alive" about the survivors of a plane crash in the Andes....

My better half refuses to watch these, but she loves horror writing, or a gory TV crime drama.