Tuesday, April 21, 2009

To operate or not to operate?

One of my favorite bloggers Karen asked me yesterday about why I don’t want to get surgery. I was going to talk about that on the last post, but I felt that it was really long to begin with and I didn’t want to bore you any more about medical stuff. Anyway I did want to answer the question because I agree with you on how annoying it is when people don’t do something that can help them out.

I have nothing against getting surgery done if I know it’s the right thing to do. I’m not one of those people who needs to have surgery and won’t do it because it’s SURGERY. For instance my one friend needs to have her tonsils removed. She literally has a sore throat on a daily basis and every time she goes to the doctor they tell her she has to get them removed. For some reason though, she REFUSES.

It seriously angers me that she won’t do it. It’s not that big of an operation and you wouldn’t be in chronic pain anymore! I just don’t get it. She’s also one of those people that won’t take an Advil if she has a headache because too much medication is bad for you. Me? If the hint of a headache comes on I pop 3 of those babies.

The reason why I didn’t want to get surgery on my foot is because that particular surgery has little to no success rate. I’ve read up on a lot of the surgery and have seen bad outcomes. Most of the time, the pain is still there and the recovery itself is painful and unnecessary.

For me there is no way I will get that surgery. What it is basically, they go into your foot cut open your heel, and shave off the bone spur in there. Ew. Even though bone spurs can cause plantar fasciitis, getting rid of them doesn’t actually stop the problem or the pain. I just don’t see the point of getting a surgery like that done, if it doesn’t help the problem at hand.

Another reason why I don’t want surgery is because I’m 24 years old and I’ve had 10 surgeries. That’s a lot. Most people don’t even have to have half the amount of those in their lifetime. I’ve had 5 knee surgeries on my left knee alone. Three in one year when I was 13! Plus another one looming on the horizon but hopefully not for a while.

I hate that I have to get all these surgeries. There’s always a pity party that comes along with it, and I never feel “normal” because I can’t do certain activities anymore. I hate when people feel sorry for me because I don’t want them to be. Just treat me like you would anyone else. I’m fine. Yes, it’s very frustrating that I can’t do some stuff anymore but I deal with it and move on.

I just need to take another break from that operating table and if this injection will help me stay away? That’s just awesome.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Of course. I wouldn't get surgery either with that success rate. That is insane! I am young too, ummm...sort of...and I have had 3 major surgeries and 3 orthopedic surgeries. I thought that was a lot.

Plus as an adult I have had 4 major hospital stays - like a minimum of 3 weeks. And 3 quick stays - like the one I had 2 weeks ago. I have no idea why I am so sickly!!

Thanks for answering my question!! And I hope that the shot works.

Babycakes said...

Maybe we all need to have one bad birthday to appreciate good birthdays and make damn sure we make them non fail birthdays!

erin - heart in ireland said...

Doesn't sound like the type of surgery I would be interested in having either, especially if the success rate for fixing the problem isn't the best.

What have you done to your knee? I tore my ACL in 2002 and had surgery for that.