Didja ever notice...

[caryc]

On TV, when a person injures a body part, it no longer belongs to "him"?

It's always "that arm" or "that leg" or "that eye". Even the doctors are guilty of this.

I have never used "that" expression in my life when addressing a body part. Have any of you?

 

[dougader]

You're watching as much tv as me lately (home with the flu). Funny how we notice small hings like that. That mind of yours is working overtime. 8)

 

[Tallbald]

OK. In 2010 I had a knee replacement and on a whim I wanted to keep the cut off bone piece from my right knee joint. Pretty unique. I dunno----- Vaquero grip inlay for my own personal use(?). How Old West would that be! Anyway, I'm a retired ER nurse and the idea didn't bother me. It was just my bone. I came into the world with it and owned it for 52 years up to then. Surgeon was supportive. I only got serious and irritated when the hospital administration said "no".. " you cannot have it because it will be incinerated as hazardous waste". The CEO of the hospital got involved and nursing administration. I went round and round with them even telling them it was "my personal religion" (they couldn't prove otherwise) that demanded I hold onto the scrap piece.Telling me "no" cost them a lot in time administrative meetings and such. I only gave up on my crusade when the dispute appeared to be stressing Miss Penny. The surgeon, a good fella who was a dangerous Alaskan game hunter and Super Blackhawk devotee was disappointed I quit the fight. He told me my request, although odd for our area, was not uncommon among other faiths in large cities where he trained. Looking back, I shoulda pushed on for the bragging rights.
On another note, I did push a couple years before that and demand to be given the 12 overpriced metal appliances and bone screws they removed from my pre-replacement knee after it healed from a severe break. I had had a ladder fall in 2005 and the knee had to be cobbled up in emergency surgery, and arthritis formed and locked the knee requiring the aforementioned replacement. The removed parts are in a ziplock bag in the shop awaiting who knows what. The drilled plates are individually serial numbered, and the screws look downright vicious. Glad I was asleep.....
Don.

 

[caryc]

Tallbald,

I know what you mean about the hardware. A friend of mine just had another surgery on his back. They removed the previously installed hardware during the new procedure and he brought it home in a plastic bag.

Three or four ugly looking brace things and about 10 or so very vicious looking screws about one and three quarters of an inch long. It wasn't shiny like stainless like I thought it would be but he said they told him it was titanium.

 

[Sin6Sec63451022]

So, is "that" knee still doing OK?

 

[Fox Mike]

Had my hand operated on (Dupuytren's contracture) and requested that I watch what they were going to do. The surgeon said OK but the anesthesiologist said NO. He didn't want me in a 'semi-stupid' condition that just may move and screw up everything. I guess there may be some legal 'thing' about it. I did get to watch a video of the operation later. Very interesting.

 

[Tallbald]

So, is "that" knee still doing OK?

.
Not perfect but better than what it was before surgery. Don.

 

[exavid]

I've noticed the tendency and remarked about it more than once. Why do people refer to their kidney, heart or other part as "the kidney" instead of "my kidney"? Most never refer to "their" parts. I guess it's less personal to refer to them as, "the" instead of taking ownership.

 

[caryc]

I've noticed the tendency and remarked about it more than once. Why do people refer to their kidney, heart or other part as "the kidney" instead of "my kidney"? Most never refer to "their" parts. I guess it's less personal to refer to them as, "the" instead of taking ownership.

I guess they just don't want to admit that they are not perfect.

 

[Poco Oso]

When they did the second spinal fusion on me, I asked the hospital to save me the rods and screws from my first fusion. They went to sterilization, and then disappeared. I'm thinking there's a pretty good profit for them in the recycling of the titanium in these parts. Either that, or the one, really grumpy, nurse didn't like the idea of me using them as parts on my motorcycle. I wish I'd thought about asking to save the bone scrap from my knee replacement now.

 

[Fox Mike]

I have noticed that body parts get strange names also. I read that a woman was shot and the bullet was in her yet. Just where, exactly, is the "yet"?

 

[caryc]

I have noticed that body parts get strange names also. I read that a woman was shot and the bullet was in her yet. Just where, exactly, is the "yet"?

It's about six inches south of your gizzard.

 

[gramps]

I have noticed that body parts get strange names also. I read that a woman was shot and the bullet was in her yet. Just where, exactly, is the "yet"?

It's about six inches south of your gizzard.

As a nurse of46 years I concur with your statement, CaryC. :mrgreen:
gramps

 

[wolfsong]

Had my hand operated on (Dupuytren's contracture) and requested that I watch what they were going to do. The surgeon said OK but the anesthesiologist said NO. He didn't want me in a 'semi-stupid' condition that just may move and screw up everything. I guess there may be some legal 'thing' about it. I did get to watch a video of the operation later. Very interesting.

How long ago did you have that procedure done? I had the same condition operated on last March on my right hand. Now, here it is 11 months later and the contraire is appearing again in the same hand, just slightly to the right of the original incision.

My pinkie finger was majorly affected the first go-round, this time it is located under my ring finger. I'm waiting for my appointment with the ortho doc in Matrch. Sure not looking forward to recovery therapy...

 

[toysoldier]

After working in the O.R. for 40 years, I can offer some insight into this "souvenir of surgery" issue.
A long time ago, it was common practice to give patients the parts that had been cut out, if they wanted them. Lots of kids took their tonsils to Show & Tell at school. Back when cataract surgery involved removing the lens whole, it was given to the patient in a little jar of formalin. When one of our patients thought the nurse had delivered a pill and swallowed her lens, formalin and all, that practice stopped. Increasing awareness of the hazard of formalin, the rise of diseases like hepatitis and AIDS, and the increasing activity of lawyers caused the hospital I worked at to set a blanket rule banning giving any tissue to patients or their family. I suppose an exception would be made if a limb were delivered to a funeral home. "Hardware" is a different matter. Metal screws and plates can be cleaned and sterilized before being returned to the patient. Sometimes the patient's request for these parts doesn't get communicated, sometimes the parts go to the surgeon, who fails to get them to the patient.
Implant metals include stainless steel, chrome/cobalt/molybdenum alloy, or titanium alloy.

As for using bone from a total knee surgery, it would be difficult to find something to do with what gets cut off. At the joint, the bone is a thin, hard shell over spongy "cancellous" bone. If they cut off a leg or arm, there might be enough of the thick, hard "cortical" bone of the shaft to fashion an inlay or small knife handle.

 

[Poco Oso]

Thanks for that informative post, toysoldier.

 

[mikewriter]

Nothing to do with the OP, but as to the "yet", my mother-in-law is a nice German Catholic North Texas lady, and this is common in her speech - to use "yet" in place of words like "still". Instead of saying, for instance, that she still has a cold, it will be that she has it "yet". When my wife gets lonesome for her Mom and Dad, she will occasionally revert to those speech patterns she grew up around, which sometimes confuse me - yet!

Mike