#SURGERY

[itsme-imtherealone]

Mouthwashing if it was good

[disasterhimbo]

[ID: a quote tweet. The quoted tweet by lain (@/user0000O0) says, “this year felt like being awake during surgery.” The response, by darryl li (@dcli), dated December 17, 2024, says, “for a lot of people in gaza this was literally true, thanks to israel’s refusal to allow anesthesia drugs in.” End ID.]

‘We leave patients to scream for hours and hours’

[unb1nding-t-b0y]

Newsflash!!! If your doctor says your baby has "gonads" that need removal or that there is a genital "deformity" these words are code for intersex baby. REFUSE UROLOGY SURGERY FOR YOUR INFANT UNLESS THEY CAN PROVE IT WILL EFFECT YOUR BABY IN THE NEXT YEAR. sometimes urethras are blocked or there's legitimate impact to functionality. Otherwise almost always surgery can wait till your child is old enough to understand what is happening. As someone who went through pediatric urology- you don't want them operating unless it's 100% necessary. The procedures are gruesome and traumatic (and often not anesthetized) most people use it as a first resort when surgery should ALWAYS be a last resort especially for minors.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I finally found a doctor that would remove my uterus and I had him preserve it in a jar for me. I gave it to a woman with a trans flag pin that said ‘MTF’ and told her the next time some idiot transphobe told her 'real women have a uterus’, she could now reply with 100% honesty that she, in fact, did have a uterus and the transphobe could die mad about it.

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

doin' just fabulous! surgery went great!!

[hamletteprinceofdenmark]

One day in 2019, I had pain so bad I went to the ER.

My gut felt like there were red hot needles and knifes being stabbed into it. I felt nauseous. I felt faint. I very nearly threw up.

It was not the first time I felt this way but it was the worst I’d ever felt. I’d been getting increasingly bad pain for over a year and I had gone to countless doctors trying to determine what it was.

The doctors at the ER — thankfully — took me seriously. They determined I had a severely infected gallbladder and the only way to save my life was to have surgery to remove it.

I still had to give consent before the surgery.

I remember being terrified. I was alone. There was no one to help me. And somehow, even though the only course of action I could take was to consent to the surgery the fact that I had to before they could take action made it all the more terrifying. The consequences of the surgery would mean I would live, but I’d never quite be the same. I felt cheated by my own body. Why was it this way? Why couldn’t I be healthy? Functional? Why wasn’t my body working with me?

The nurses, doctors, and surgeons there were all incredibly kind to me.

One surgeon in particular — the one who ended up operating on me — said something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. “Your body is there to help you. Sometimes, when part of the body is no longer helping you, the best thing to do is cut it away. You’ll be so much happier after the surgery. You won’t be in pain anymore.”

I think about that a lot.

I think about it a lot when I see trans men begging for help to get top surgery and are met with resistance or well meaning but ignorant messages begging back to not “mutilate” their body.

I think about my surgeon, who was so kind to me and knew what to say when I was scared and crying and alone in my hospital bed.

Your body is there to help you.

Sometimes, when part of the body is no longer helping you, the best thing to do is cut it away.

You’ll be so much happier after the surgery.

You won’t be in pain anymore.

I hope you get your top surgery.

I hope you will be so much happier.

And I hope the pain will end.

[skunkes]

neutered

[feminist-space]

"In an unprecedented move, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans representing Connecticut, New York and Missouri have unilaterally declared it will no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure takes. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls on Anthem to reverse this proposal immediately.

Anesthesiologists provide individualized care to every patient, carefully assessing the patient’s health prior to the surgery, looking at existing diseases and medical conditions to determine the resources and medical expertise needed, attending to the patient during the entire procedure, resolving unexpected complications that may arise and/or extend the duration of the surgery, and working to ensure that the patient is comfortable during recovery.

Payment for anesthesia services is based on several factors, including the exact amount of time for anesthesiologists to deliver care preoperatively, during the operation, and when transitioning the patient to the recovery unit afterwards. With this new policy, Anthem will arbitrarily pre-determine the time allowed for anesthesia care during a surgery or procedure. If an anesthesiologist submits a bill where the actual time of care is longer than Anthem's limit, Anthem will deny payment for the anesthesiologist’s care. With this new policy, Anthem will not pay anesthesiologists for delivering safe and effective anesthesia care to patients who may need extra attention because their surgery is difficult, unusual or because a complication arises.

“This is just the latest in a long line of appalling behavior by commercial health insurers looking to drive their profits up at the expense of patients and physicians providing essential care,” said Donald E. Arnold, M.D., FACHE, FASA. “It’s a cynical money grab by Anthem, designed to take advantage of the commitment anesthesiologists make thousands of times each day to provide their patients with expert, complete and safe anesthesia care. This egregious policy breaks the trust between Anthem and its policyholders who expect their health insurer to pay physicians for the entirety of the care they need.”

ASA urges people concerned about Anthem’s proposal to contact their state insurance commissioner or their state legislator.

In June 2024, Elevance Health, the corporate name for Anthem, reported a 24.12% increase in its year-over-year net income to $2.3 billion and a 24.29% increase in its year-over-year net profit margin."

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures

[toyastales]

Good morning!

Assorted Doughnuts 🍩

[kathaynesart]

The final commission for @justletmereadmycomics is complete! Haha it was such an interesting request! I have never drawn Monkey Kid style before, but it was a lot of fun. Poor Donnie, I'm sure he'll bounce back like he always does though.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who supported and sent kind words to my friend in regards to her surgery. It meant so much to us both and helped her immensely. I'm happy to announce that her extensive surgery was a success! She's five pounds lighter due to the amount of endometriosis they had to remove and it had even reached parts of her liver, gut, and lungs which have now been purged. I'm so grateful to you all and her amazing surgeons! Now time for the healing process!

[deep-dark-fears]

Keeps on ticking. A story submitted by Vedran to Deep Dark Fears - thanks!

Looking for a gift for the holidays? Check out my shop, where you can order custom portraits, or the original artwork from my comics! CLICK HERE!

[magnetothemagnificent]

I find it interesting how people don't seem to know about or expect trans men to get bottom surgery or other masculinizing surgery and treat top surgery as *the* surgery. Like, I saw my anthropology mentor today and I hadn't seen her since before I had surgery, and she said something along the lines of like "it must be such a relief to get *the* big surgery over with", as if top surgery would be the only major surgery I could feasibly get over the course of my transition. And you see this a lot with people equating trans men with having a vulva, using terms like "boypussy" (a personal ick) when referring to sexual experiences involving trans men, as if trans men couldn't possibly have other genitalia. And of course facial masculinization surgery is also a thing many trans men opt for, but it is never talked about as even a potential resource for trans men, despite it being a valid option.

Personally, I think top surgery is it for me. I would love to be able to get bottom surgery, but unfortunately I have genitourinary disorders and I don't think it's a good idea to mess with anything down there. But if I didn't have those disorders, bottom surgery would not be off the table. And getting a hysterectomy or something similar certainly is *not* off the table, I would like to get some sort of sterilization procedure at some point.

I don't know if this is part of people thinking trans men somehow have an easier time "passing" than other trans people without significant intervention (we don't) or people being uncomfortable with the idea of trans men "ruining" our femalehood, or maybe it's a combination of both ideas and others, but it's just such a frustrating phenomena.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was trying to get top surgery. In Minecraft.

The surgery scars had a cyan glow but so did the nipples.

Why did I have nipples?

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

Dinosaur freezes a large amount of food and considers himself very well prepared indeed to recover from surgery.

(I don't normally add patreon links to posts, but I will this time since I'm about to miss a few weeks of work. Thank you to my patrons for making that a less bad thing financially than it would be otherwise!)

[welcome-to-alice-in-helll]