Most feared medical procedure

I've never had a spinal tap, but everything I've read about them says that you don't feel any pain, just pressure. Is that just a load of BS they tell you so you don't get scared?

LilyAnn "I've never had a spinal tap, but everything I've read about them says that you don't feel any pain, just pressure. Is that just a load of BS they tell you so you don't get scared?"

My friend says that you feel a bunch of pressure when they do the spinal tap, but the pain comes after. You have to lay down flat for about 8 hours and you have to drink caffeine to help with the headache you get (and you will get one, pretty much, unless you are really lucky). Also sometimes they have to go back in and put blood BACK into your spinal cord to fill a hole or a gap in the fluid. Her severe headache would not go away, so she had to endure another tap to put the blood in. She was thrilled (not!!!).

Episiotomy for child birth or emergency C-section.

Thankfully no C-section, but I had the episiotomy. I must have been leaving on another planet thinking that nothing will tear or be cut during delivery and to my surprise when I heard the doc asking for lidocaine and asked what was that for...I got my answer pretty quick "to make a little incision"???

Breaze and LillyAnne you do feel a bit of pain as they cannot use local anesthetic as it may contaminate the CerebroSpinal Fluid and invalidate the test, and so defeat the purpose of having it performed .

Spinal fluid fills the space around the brain and spinal cord. This fluid acts like a cushion. During a spinal tap procedure, a needle is passed through the membrane that surrounds the spinal canal. This allows the doctor to remove a small sample of spinal fluid. Normally, as the needle is removed, the puncture hole seals off and no more fluid comes out. However, sometimes the hole does not seal properly and spinal fluid leaks into the nearby tissues as in your friend's case.

If there is a loss of too much spinal fluid from a leak at the puncture site, the spinal fluid pressure goes down and a headache occurs. This headache may be mild or severe. The pain is often worse when you sit or stand and gets better or goes away when you lie down. There may also be dizziness, nausea, and blurred vision. The headache usually goes away within 24 hours. But when the headache is very severe or lasts longer than 24 hours special treatments can be given to stop the leak.

The leak has to been treated with a “blood patch.” This involves drawing a sample of your own blood and injecting it next to the puncture hole. This forms a blood clot that presses against the hole to stop the leak and increase the fluid pressure. Most people start to feel better within 30 minutes after the procedure. Improvement usually continues over the next several days. In a small percent of cases, the headache continues or may come back. In that case, a second procedure or another treatment may be needed.

In the UK we refer to a spinal tap as a lumbar puncture and is essential or extremely useful in the diagnosis of bacterial, fungal, mycobacterial, and viral central nervous system (CNS) infections and, in certain settings, for helping in the diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage, CNS malignancies, demyelinating diseases, and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

I had a lumbar puncture last year when I was rushed in and they didn't know why I was having such high fevers and a headache ( I convulsed the fever was that high) .

It's certainly not on my list to have again in a hurry . It hurts like hell !!!!

You have to lie extremely still whilst they do it too . Not good when it hurts so bad .

Nikki

I watched as a friend received a Lumbar puncture given by a trainee = I refused the same as he was in agony.

There are certain non-emergency things that I'll never let a trainee perform on me or my family. Lumbar puncture is near the top of the list.

Not to brag, but the first lumbar puncture I did in residency was very smooth, and the patient had no real complaint other than feeling pressure. Technique had a lot to do with it.

The thought of being on the receiving end of one of those? Um.. Not my idea of a good time.

Doc

Blood patch, that's the wording I was trying to remember and couldn't!! Yeah, the only way they would ever get something like that done on me is to knock me the heck out. There's just no way I would be able to hack it. I am a BIG WUSS, and I am not afraid to own up to it!!!

I've performed thousands of LPs and have rarely had complaints about them. Use enough anesthetic and pain is minimal. I'm also very good at doing them. I've also had five performed on myself and they were absolutely no big deal. A slight stinging with the local and then no pain. During one they hit a nerve root and I felt transitory pain down my leg. No big deal. I did have a post LP headache with the first which lasted ten days and was very uncomfortable. I just sucked it up. I think terror makes for these reports and they are unjustified. Now bone marrow biopsies are totally another story. Terrible!

Most guys are terrified when I have them tied up and apply a scalpel to their penis. The fear increases as bleeding begins.

Mwuhahahahaha!!!!!

OK, that's just one of my unmentionable fantasies I'd like to do to a few men on my shit list.

Susie,

May I add my brother and his wife to your "shit list" with no mercy for them? 😈 Karma is already reaping upon them ten-fold. 😈

Andie

Post 47, Susie what are you doing??? A Penisectomy!!!! 'Nameofthegame here is "Don't Piss Off Susie!!!!" I'll Bet Sue would be an excellent interrogator (That's Interrogator, not Irrigator ......for now) to those under her scrutiny it would be "Death by a thousand cuts!!!!" Hit me, Beat me, Talk dirty to me, Make me write bad Cheques, Make me jump out of Perfectly Good Airplanes!!!!, Tie me up and let Susie have at me!!!!! Oh Jesus what's happening!!! Heehehehehehehe!! It's all in good fun, you know you like it, that's why we are here!! Somebody once asked me why I jumped out of "Perfectly Good Airplanes" and I said,"I like the Pain!!!" "It hurtz so good!!!!" ........It'z 4 AM in the morning and i like jack an' coke so whatdayaxpct?????? 'Makes the sprained ankle feel better...hobble, hobble.

with a "Crutch!!,"

highwater

PS I don't mind being on Susie's "List!!"..... Just not her "Shit list!!"

Susie has perfected the Bobbit-ectomy.

Proper name; a surgical procedure where the male reproductive organ is cut off. The first account of a successful Bobbit-ectomy occured in Manassas, Virginia, in 1994, by Ms. Loreena Bobbit.

"John has recovered nicely from his recent Bobbit-ectomy."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bobbit-ectomy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Lorena_Bobbitt

@user264 ...I often wondered what happened to that Dick.....her name certainly applied -- Bobbitt...In Australian vernacular "bobbit" can mean just bob a bit off ...Lorena just went the extra distance

I had a stent removed after my kidney surgery, that was the most painful thing ever. I had that stent in place for close to 3 months I believe. I was on the table in the stirrups and my surgeon was sitting between my legs and Doc was on my left side. First my surgeon squirted some numbing stuff and then we all talked for a few minutes. I didn't see the equipment before it was removed but I sure did see it after. Had I seen if prior to I probably would have left.

So my surgeon asked me if I was ready, I said yes because I had no idea what was coming, lol. Then he told Doc to hold my hand tight and be ready. I should have known. As soon as he started sticking that grabber wand up inside me it was bad, but when he got a hold of the stent and started pulling it out I almost came up off that table. Doc had to lay over me to keep me still and in place. It was the most horrible thing I have ever felt in my life and the thought of ever having to go through that again scares the living hell out of me.

Mashie

Autopsy

P625745, why does an autopsy scare you? You are going to be dead and you won't feel a thing, see anything, hear anything, or know anything. You can do whatever you want to me after I am dead for the reasons I mentioned already, but when I am alive and breathing, ummm, not so much, lol.

Mashie

P625745, why does an autopsy scare you?

Maybe it's a sort of whistling in the dark kind of comment. The necessary prerequisite for an autopsy is being dead as a doornail and frankly, who really wants that? Being dead is something to dread.

Autopsy

Do people care WHILE it is being done to them??????????????????????

I never thought about it from that point of view agracier, good point.

Mashie

Do people care WHILE it is being done to them??????????????????????

Well, if you watch some of the old X-Files, you'll see that beautiful Dr. Dana Scully does seem to have a knack for trying to autopsy people who haven't always quite passed away from this mortal realm yet ... it's a wonder she ever picks up a scalpel anymore, more than likely the subject is apt to sit up, blink and complain ... ha ha

Because for the autopsy you are in fact dead absolutely no chance of getting better,. All other medical procedures there is the hope of getting better, cured or at least able to function somewhat normally again. And Mashie we only asume that once dead you don't feel pain or cannot hear simply because there is no response

I can see a circumstance when some would fear an autopsy... :-\\

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autopsy-idUSN149975820070917

I can see a circumstance when some would fear an autopsy... :-\\

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autopsy-idUSN149975820070917

Somewhat similar to the fear that some had in Victorian times of being buried alive and waking up in a casket underground ... yikes!

Apparently there were a number of businessmen who cashed in on this fear by selling all kinds of contraptions to be installed in a casket of a paranoid loved one, from breathing tubes to the surface or handles to ring a bell upon awakening.

Well, it's no longer done; at least to the best of my knowledge, therefore it is not something today as it were to be feared. But that having been said, I grew up in the 50s & 60s, and I learned first hand about the "Pasteur" Treatment, a regimen of injections for (at the time) 21 very painful, large, long bore needles and thick serum being injected into your belly. More commonly referred to as "Rabies shots". Just curious if anyone else had them? I was 9 1/2 and trust me, a small belly doesn't afford much room for 21 injections to be spaced any significant distance from yesterday's agonizing shot!

Anything having to do with a dentist. My heart is racing just typing that!

I have undergone CT Enteroclysis recently and I fear to get it done ever again. The pain that happens when they insert the tube through the nose is unbearable. When the tube reaches the throat it gets even worse because apart from pain in the nose you also gag. All this is done without anesthesia. The little gel that they put in the nose doesn't help at all. And then for CT Scan they put lot of liquid through the tube. That liquid makes you puke. It is terrible

Having wisdom tooth taken out in dental chair . Had to have my head held as the dentist pulled and held my mouth open

I've got a cataract surgery coming up this month. Having somebody cut my eye and play around inside is scaring the shit out of me. Yes, I know the statistics, but those aren't about MY eye.