Is it ever a good idea to perform self-surgery?
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From wikipedia:
Sampson fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle, on July 3, 1782, outside Tarrytown, New York, she took two musket balls in her thigh and a cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. A soldier put her on his horse and took her to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other musket ball was too deep for her to reach. On April 1, 1783, she was promoted and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Paterson.
A notable 19th century surgeon ... Robert Liston ... is
the only surgeon to have achieved a 300% mortality rate
as a result of an operation ... the patient, his
assistant (who lost a finger while holding the patient
down) and an observer died. The first two from
infection of their wounds and the observer from fright,
believing he had been cut when really it was only his
coat that had been cut.The doctor killed part of my nail bed which prevented really bed recurrence, and with some maintenance, careful filing of the under-side and edge of the nail (with a very thin special podiatry file), it doesn't come back.
Pronation issues also exacerbate ingrown nails by placing too much pressure on one side of a toe, especially prevalent in the biggest toe. For that, go to a running store and talk to them about insoles. For me, the SuperFeet insoles in Brooks Ghost running shoes make my feet, back, knees, hips, ankles, and metatarsals feel vey noticeably better.
If your first thought was that it is probably rarely a good idea, and that there there will probably be complications, your first thought was correct.
"...given people who perform this type of surgery are often in life or death situations, it is sometimes worth the risk."
But this seems so obvious that the question is hardly worth asking in the first place.
http://www.napoleonguide.com/medical_instruments.htm has pictures of instruments used and even an instruction poster from the period. Don't try this at home, though; according to http://www.napoleonguide.com/medical.htm, only about a third of people who had a limb amputated survived.
Hammer and screwdriver, if I remember the story right.
I've always wondered if it made more sense to go to a veterinarian for broken bones / torn muscles... I went to physical therapy for a rotator cuff issue, and it wasn't cheap!
I taped my whole hand for the first week for stability and then slowly removed fingers from the tape as I felt like it was healing (swelling going down - color returning to normal). After the bandages and splint were off my finger wouldn't bend inward and it wouldn't fully straighten without applying pressure using my other hand. I started doing my own "physical therapy" on it whenever I had some free time to force it to straighten/bend. It took a few months before I could bend it by itself to touch my palm but now it's about 99% functional as compared to my other pinky.