Dr. Leonid Rogozov operating himself to remove his appendix in Antarctica, 1961

I had this happen to me on several occasions. Once because I got a contact lens to protect a wounded eye. I told the doctor I could not imagine putting anything artifical in my eye while it is trying to heal. She insisted it would work for 80% of the patients. Once in, the world went black. It didnt even hurt. It was my brain refusing to accept this version of the multiverse. I make a point of mentioning my tendency to just pass out when I get slightly strange treatment from med personel. They seem to have it often enough, because they are always happy to hear in advance something might come up. Its strange, because I can not really predict if it will happen. I am not really afraid of pain. It is more like being afraid of loosing control or something.

Anyway, thanks for giving the phenomenon a name.

"Either way, it's kinda fascinating."

I'd say it's very annoying rather than kinda fascinating. Cannot donate blood. Routine bloodwork can become a chore. Minor doctor procedures become gripping.

Doctors/nurses don't like it either, apparently they do not want you to pass out during these transacations.

And since it's a brain-based thing, thinking about the issue, "ok, I'm not going to let this bother me" actually just enhances how much it bothers me. ugh.

I've had this happen once when I cut my thumb cutting glass tubes for a high school science class; I had to be semi-carried me to the nurse's office who got me to drink orange juice to recover. The weirdest thing is that I'm perfectly fine getting my blood drawn for tests and watching the nurse draw the IV or swap out vials; it's just that thumb injury that cause me to go lights out

"he slowly pulled off my fingernail with a pair of pliers"

Any idea what you call the feeling in your belly/spine when someone describes a nasty injury?

It is real. I have never been frightened by the sight of blood, do not think it is gross etc., but a couple of years ago I was having blood drawn for some lab testing and glanced down at the tube while the nurse filled the vial. The vial was super dark red but quite frothy and bright pink colored at the top. Anyways the colors were much more vibrant than I expected and I rapidly felt myself slipping away? I don't think I completely passed out but I started to fall or something and caught myself. I think the nurse asked if I wanted to lie down for five minutes after that and rest before leaving, haha.

In July of 1974 I was in my first month of internship at LA County-USC Medical Center. I was on the Jail Ward rotation: anyone in the LA County Jail who needed to see a doctor was brought to this ward in handcuffs by sheriff's deputies in a van, uncuffed upon leaving the elevator, and from then on treated like any other hospital patient, though there were deputies scattered throughout the ward, which held perhaps 50 prisoner-patients. Deputies were required to deposit their weapons in a safe before entering the ward.

In my third week or so on the ward — three weeks after graduating from medical school — we got a man who'd been in a fight whose arm had been sliced open by a broken bottle down to the bone, the injury being about a foot long. The thing was, he was so drunk, he wasn't in any pain yet was perfectly conscious.

Me and a fellow intern spent 3-4 hours in the early morning suturing him up after copiously irrigating the wound with many liters of sterile saline. We'd NEVER done anything remotely like this in med school, so we simply did what we'd learned from watching and reading. We must have put in hundred of sutures, starting with deep muscle and then moving outward layer by layer. We worked from opposite sides of the surgical field. During the entire procedure the guy never complained of pain, but rather talked with us perfectly rationally.

When we were done, we were certain he'd become septic and require weeks of IV antibiotics, but darned if that wasn't the case: he was discharged back to the County Jail after a couple days, with no apparent infection.

I'm the same way: needles, incisions, whatever; I like to watch.

There's an interesting book called "Who Goes First?"[1] about something that used to be much more common than it is today: self-experimentation in medicine.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Who-Goes-First-Lawrence-Altman/dp/052...

Yes. I read about this when I was in medical school and was astounded at his boldness. FWIW he won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his accomplishment.

I just read through the story, and not quite - he got the catheter started partway, and then the nurse who he'd tricked into thinking she would be the test subject (he needed her to get supplies) walked him to radiology so he see what he was doing when he got to the tricky parts.

Was the Nobel prize for the discovery of helicobacter in the stomach lining, which had essentially been rediscovered as he found it in some old analysis

> Is appendicitis really that prevalent?

It's not incredibly prevalent, but it's a death sentence if not treated immediately.

You're right. There is also Chilean town / research station that requires all residents to have their appendix removed [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas

If life feels for too long more like surviving than living one might get tired of it.

I guess, if you find it fascinating that we're capable of overriding our instincts.

As someone fertile who has managed to avoid reproducing for >40 years, I don't find that particularly fascinating.

Where do you see reduced pain on that page? I would have guessed adrenaline to be suppressing the pain, but that link talks about adrenal insufficiency. “Pain” is only mentioned in the context of experiencing new pains in the abdomen.

I'm pretty sure it isn't.

Edit:

To elaborate, I've had other experiences medical professionals assessed as shock. They were paralyzing, and usually involved uncontrolled involuntary shaking and tears.

This is something quite different. If I entered into such states of shock in the survival situations I'm referring to, I would have bled to death.

My assumption is it's a massive release of adrenaline and endorphins.

s/surprising/shocking/

It's amazing what the threat of bankruptcy can make people do.

Well done, sir. Well done.

Sounds like Evan O'Neill Kane. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iEvan_O%27Neill_Kane?wprov=sfl... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-surgery?wprov=sfla1

There have been studies on babies with and without anesthesia.

From memory, with anesthesia was better for the baby.

But being one of the many political biologies I'm not sure I'd trust the result.

There are mild sedation techniques. People think they are "put under" because there tends to be no memory of the procedure, but it is not like general anesthesia in the strong sense.

Yeah I remember a friend had appendicitis in the late 80s and she only spent one week in hospital and one week recovering at home.

For some of us the idea of cutting into ourselves is definitely not a no brained. I could easily see myself be paralyzed by fear in such a situation.

I can see a more passive person preferring death easily.

Suicide rates would argue otherwise.

For me personally, there's not a lot of things that I think would stop me, but I don't think I would operate on myself.

Possibly, if I had the skills I would feel differently, but honestly, I think I would feel the same way.

> his own hand

...if only:

> prepared to amputate his trapped arm at a point on the mid-forearm in order to escape.