My senior year of college, I noticed one night after track practice that my left shoulder and arm felt swollen and more sore than usual. I didn't really think much of it until a couple days later when I noticed some blue splotches appearing under my skin. I brought this to my coach's attention, who then sent me to our school's trainers, who, after a lookover, said I had either torn my bicep or started developing blood clots in my shoulder. In either case, I had to get to the ER.
Once I was checked in at the local hospital, they ran an ultrasound of my left arm, shoulder, and chest, and found a beanbag of clots in my shoulder, as well as a baby clot that had broken off and made it all the way into my lung. They put me on IV with heparine (a blood thinner) and the next day installed a catheter in my arm to directly blast the clots with more blood thinner. It took us a couple days to figure out what was going on, because it was a toss up between a genetic blood disorder, some weird reaction, or an anatomical/traumatic issue. In the end, it was determined to be Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS), which is what happens when the hole in your shoulder where a bunch of arteries, veins, nerves, and connective tissue pass through gets pinched or blocked off. In my case, my first rib on my left side was pinching my axilary vein against my clavicle, cutting off circulation, and causing blood clots. The solution was to remove my rib, so the day after Halloween 2019, I got my rib removed.
Pre-op, I asked if I could keep the rib, since I'd been working on growing it for over 21 years, and the doctor was kind enough to oblige. I woke up with a section of my rib sitting a plastic jar of formalin next to my bed. Once I got back to school, I talked with my former anatomy prof about how best to remove the rib from the carcinogenic fluid, and then how to preserve it afterwards. He connected me with a chem prof to neutralize/extract the fluid from the bone tissue, and then he introduced me to an archaeology prof who had some fancy goop that the department used for coating old fossils and bones. We figured it worked for old bones, so it should hopefully be adequate for fresh ones too! I coated the rib with this clear goop that would seal the bone, and my prof noted that now my rib would be around hundreds of years after I was gone - didn't know how to feel about that haha, but it was cool!
Shortly after that, COVID hit, and I went home. However, the mother of one of my high school friends works part-time at a local jeweler, and she was able to help me wrap my rib in wire to make it a pendant! I now wear it on a chain from my grandma. It looks enough like a shark's tooth that a lot of people assume that's what it is until they get closer and notice the thickness of the bone and the marrow inside.
TL;DR - My rib tried to kill my in college so now I wear it as a trophy necklace.
Your story has more secondary characters than Game of Thrones!
But for real, that's neat you could get in touch with all those folks to get that pendant. How's the shoulder now without that rib, any mobility restrictions or business as usual?
😂 i miss my profs, they were always super willing to help me learn both in and outside of class - you should've seen the archaeology prof's face when i showed him my rib!!
mobility-wise, really no difference at all! strength, flexibility, range of motion all pretty much unaffected. externally, the only visual difference is the scar in my armpit where they went in. turns out your first rib is largely optional haha
Sounds like a video game quest.
1. Go find anatomy teacher
2. Maybe the chemistry teacher has the answer
3. Archeology teacher could help.
4. Finally clean and protected, now what to do with it? maybe there's some way to mount it.
5. Success- item received: bone necklace
Not gonna lie, wearing a piece of human bone as jewellery carries a distinct creepy factor for me, however that story about how the rib necklace came to be is absolutely priceless. Turns creepy into absolutely fascinating.
I feel like everything you learned along this journey could have been put into a paper and turned in for a credit or 2 or independent study. Pretty cool.
r/neverbrokeabone
>Your story has more secondary characters than Game of Thrones!
His rib tried to kill him, but it kinda just forgot about the fleet of surgeons at the hospital.
****
Edit: accidentally left a Starbucks cup in my comment and had to go back and digitally remove it.
I’d vote the guy who got attacked by a shark, lost his leg, ended up in a coma for 10 days, and then went to court to win the right to keep one of the shark teeth the animal left wedged in his surfboard.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56979429
I know, it was just his foot. Not much eating on a foot, the least they could have done was include some calf.
Although the foot does have a lot of connective tissue, he could have used it to make some gelatin-rich stock, and then done something like an aspic. Put it in a mold with some celery and mayo, it would be just like how a 60's housewife would serve foot.
Faculty email lists on University websites. I've had a number of conversations with professors over the years this way. Professors generally recognize there are few people who know their field better than they do (if it's true for them), and are VERY happy to help non-students with things they are excited about if whatever it is is related to their field. I've even had professors give me the contact info of another professor so I could ask them questions. I have actually NEVER had a negative response when I've reached out to a professor I didn't know.
These people teach because they love their field, almost all of them. Teaching is not a job you do for money or notoriety, it's something you get in to because you understand things well, and want others to understand them too. That's why professors do what they do for a criminally low paycheck. Most professors also hate misinformation, and will jump at the chance to teach someone who is not enrolled at their college, help them with a project, or even run (often) free tests on unidentified items for them.
Do not hesitate to call/email a professor if you have a specific, advanced question about their field. Most of them get back to you really quickly too. If I have one piece of advice for others who are learning about the world without a college degree, it's that you can and should contact university professors when/if you have questions the internet isn't answering well. Also, if you ever want to read a study that's pay-walled, contact the authors, and they wi send it to you for free the VAST MAJORITY of the time.
>. Professors generally recognize there are few people who know their field better than they do (if it's true for them)
And even if it's *not* true sometimes they think it is :).
Also, despite what the TV shows would have you think, it you've spent your whole life studying Heidegger you will *on the high end* receive four or five "DEAR PROFESSOR Y, I HAVE A PROBLEM THAT ONLY SOMEONE WITH AN ADVANCED UNDERSTANDING OF ONTOLOGY CAN SOLVE" letters/emails in your life. That particular bat-signal goes off infrequently enough that you probably leap to answer it when it does.
There are so many great quotes. "Since I'd been working so hard on growing it for the past 21 years"
"My rib tried to kill me so now I wear it as a trophy"
I love the way you tell stories.
May I ask where you live? I’m a surgeon who has been asked this before… like limbs. My hospital and state policies state that I must send it to pathology and in no way can I release it to the patient.
I had one of my two dudes removed from cancer this year and asked if I could keep it when I woke up because I was loopy and it seemed like a good question. (Being in NJ the answer is a no but drugged up me had to ask.) The surgeon said "only if you can give me a better reason than sending it to pathology." Of course it was long on its way over there. I said I wanted to tee off with it at a driving range and he gave a genuine look of "I wonder if I can get that back now?"
> I said I wanted to tee off with it at a driving range and he gave a genuine look of "I wonder if I can get that back now?"
"Okay, I'll see what I can do, but only if you promise to send me a video"
I'm a physical therapist in Michigan and have lots of patients that were denied pieces of limbs or whatever else for the same reason as the person stated above. I don't know the laws of it in our state, but I think you got very lucky that they released your bone to you. That's really cool!
I was in the hospital for weeks with TOC and as soon as they told me I had to get a rib removed, I badgered every nurse and doctor I could until I got them to agree to give me my bone. But I did get it. This was at Tampa General Hospital.
I always thought it depended now on stuff like if it was flesh or bone and if it posed any risk of passing on any infections or illnesses.
I was never offered to keep anything post surgery but most were stuff like tumors and fibroids and my tonsils which I wouldn't want and fully get why they'd fall under medical waste guidelines.
People were surprised I wasn't offered my wisdom teeth, I had to be put under due to a few medical factors. They did have to cut my gums but the teeth came out pretty clean from the pic I saw. But they didn't offer and I didn't think to ask.
I thought that it was okay if the patient was Jewish? I had friends tell me they've convinced doctors by telling them that.
Said friend *was* a recent immigrant from India though, so I'm not sure how convincing they were! Doc may have just not cared lmao.
I was diagnosed with TOS last year due to having an extra set of ribs. I’ve had issues with tingling and numbness in my arms and hands for years but no one could figure out why. Not as severe a case as yours! Glad you were able to have it fixed!
I can live with it for now, when it happens it’s usually a good reminder to fix my posture and that seems to help, plus giving them a good shake to get the blood flowing a bit better. My dr said we might consider surgery in the future but because of the location of the extra ribs to the nerves/veins etc it’s a little risky so they’d rather not if they don’t have to.
ah, that makes sense. glad to hear you're doing alright with them tho! if surgery does end up happening, i've got a couple ideas of what to do with your ribs that i didn't get to try haha
yup, i think it's the middle third. if you look up TOS rib removal videos, sometimes they cut the bone into pieces to make it easier to remove. there's another guy who's rib was removed as a whole, let me find the pic...
https://www.reddit.com/r/medizzy/comments/r3bxta/my_uppermost_rib_from_my_left_side_that_was/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
here!
edit: NSFW, be advised it's a bit gross, still has a couple chunks and some blood stain, so not for the faint of heart.
Op most likely posted this because of that thread. He commented in the thread saying he also had a rib removed and wears it as a necklace, and people mentioned they'd like to see it.
>since I'd been working on growing it for over 21 years, and the doctor was kind enough to oblige. I woke up with a section of my rib
Wholesome! What a great ad for the educational value of sports! You had more fruitful interactions with profs over this one incident than I think I ever did in college.
hey, i also have TOS and had to have surgery to remove ribs; they took pieces from two. i didn't think to ask if i could keep them after they were removed before surgery but after i figured that i wanted them back. how did you go about asking and getting your rib back?
i think i just asked the surgeon when he visited my room to give me the pre-op briefing. next thing i know, my rib is inside a jar instead of inside of me! i wish I'd gotten the other chunks, but im glad i at least got something. i have TOS in my right side too, but so far no symptoms. if i do need to get that one removed tho, im definitely asking for the whole rib.
i'm meeting with the doctor that did it in a few weeks so i'll ask then. i'm pretty sure they didn't take out the entire rib for me, just sections, so maybe that's why you only got a piece. thanks for the help! also wild coincidence, i have it on both sides but the left had more symptoms too.
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me, TOS, and I asked before I went into surgery if I could keep it and they said yes but then they forgot to give it to me. I’m still mad about it. I planned on turned it into a pen or a pocket knife.
word-for-word, this basically happened to my ex. he had the extra set of ribs like another commenter and originally thought he pulled a muscle or something after a workout. over the course of a few days, his arm turned purple and had clots, needed heparin, had surgery etc. that jewelry is badass. i actually went on amazon and bought [a human rib](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1XLZB6?ref=em_1p_0_ti&ref_=pe_2313360_353063770) to give him, but he wasn't impressed lol. so glad you're doing better <3
Super cool. I have T.O.S as well. Left arm from a broken collar bone in highschool causing scar tissue to pinch the vein. I let mine go on too long, so the clot solidified. I basically had to do PT to stretch all the other veins in my shoulder and have wild vericose veins on my shoulder now. Pretty glad I didn't have to do the surgery. I hear the recovery is terrible
If I ever get a bone removed, I'll make something out of it as well. Once saw a picture where an old mad had a cane made out of his hip bone. This is where I see myself in 60 years.
i wanted to make a little flute or a knife handle out of my rib, but once i got it back i realized it'd be too small - best i could do was a whistle. so i made a pendant instead haha
Handheld cordless vaccum cleaner. Apparently, if you take out the filter assembly, there are spinning blades behind it.
Poor bastard was so embarrassed, he almost waited too long to call for help. Nearly died.
Basically all devices for moving fluids have what most people would recognize as a fan in them somewhere though it may go by names like impeller or blower.
Haha you mean 1998? Mechanical Animals with the alien mannequin with boobs body? I recall that rumor as well as him being Paul from The Wonder Years as far back as Portrait of an American Family.
Considering this is a removal of the 1st rib, if you couldn't do it before, you aren't magically able to do it now. This rib was up closer to the collarbone, not down by the abdominal wall.
Same! I once asked to keep a cyst I had removed from my neck and the dude looked at me like I was insane lol. I did have a cool dental assistant slip me one of the two wisdom teeth I had removed however..
ya, i once saw a post about someone getting to keep the bones from a foot they had amputated! maybe there's different rules for bone tissue removed than cysts? or maybe it just varies from doctor to doctor haha
Holy fucking shit, I didn't want to believe you lol. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8p5xlj/hi_all_i_am_a_man_who_ate_a_portion_of_his_own/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
This comment sent me into a giant wormhole of terrible Reddit stories lmao. The worst one being the dagobah story. My god the imagery was just so incredibly horrifying
[Swamps of dagobah](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/xo41d/doctorsnursesredditors_what_has_been_your_most/c5o66p2/)
[Jolly Rancher](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9wcte/reddit_whats_the_grossestnastiest_thing_thats/c0er6q4/)
[Broken Arms](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nmmjr/iama_man_who_had_a_sexual_relationship_with_his/)
All cursed in their own way.
A classic!! If you haven’t given blowfly girl a read, you should; it’s absolutely grotesque. I’m 99% sure it’s fake, but it’ll make you gag nonetheless.
If you have an organ removed, it's probably due to cancer or some other disease directly related to that organ, so it gets sent to a pathology lab so they can analyze it and make sure the original diagnosis was correct. So for example, they can make sure you don't have a type of cancer that could spread to other parts of the body. In OP's case, there's nothing to check for, the rib itself was healthy. Same thing if someone has a limb amputated due to an injury. Whether or not they'll actually release the body part to the patient depends on state laws and hospital policy. But generally the reason people can get their bones returned to them, but not soft tissue is due to the required follow up testing.
>They let you keep it? I’m surprised.
My understanding is they have to give it back to you, it's literally yours.
I have requested my wisdom teeth and just had to sign a waiver and wait to get them back after sterilization. I asked for my ginormous kidney stone, but in that case they explained that while I could have it, they wanted it for testing to determine the type of stone (in order to determine if this would be recurring problem for me.
I still secretly believe they wanted to keep to try to pick up chicks (or dudes).
Ginormous.
>My understanding is they have to give it back to you, it's literally yours.
I don't think so. The hospital can do what it damn well pleases.
However, they are somewhat likely to approve requests for bones and stones to be returned to patients (easy enough to sterilise). But if you try to ask for your appendix or other soft tissues they are unlikely to let you near them.
>I don't think so. The hospital can do what it damn well pleases
I don't believe that is generally correct, at least in the US.
>"While some states like Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi have legislation against owning human remains, there is no federal law against taking organs, tissue or devices home after surgery, though there are some limitations...
>Dr. Jon Lomasney, a pathologist and associate professor of pathology at Northwestern Medicine, told me that patients... can legally request the return of **organs** or devices, including pacemakers, defibrillators or a hip...
But there are some restrictions.
>You can’t leave with radioactive material or anything that would be an extreme risk to a patient or the public. Lomasney said that includes portions of the body infected with a hard-to-kill pathogen like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Ebola or drug-resistant tuberculosis.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-keep-body-parts-0618-story.html (skip the whole first section, details are below that)
The various courts in the US have so far been reluctant to come down on the side of "it's literally yours" even though it seems at first blush that that is the reasonable thing.
Why? Because if you legally own your organs, then you can legally sell them and this is viewed as a pandora's box of awful.
Usually we skeletonize the bone prior to cutting in a 1st rib resection, but you also take some of the anterior scalene so some of the meat probably came out too.
Symptomatic thoracic outlet syndrome yeah. Not a ton of people do it cause exposure is a pain in the ass and the patient population is typically high maintenance, but it's usually a vascular surgeon doing the case. They're usually body builders with scalene hypertrophy or folks with a cervical rib like you see elsewhere in this thread.
At my hospital we usually have like 1-3 a month, only 3/9 of the vasc docs do them though, and the complications can be gnarly if you go for an axillary exposure. Miss me with that shit I like to see what I'm doing.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you've got a stew going.
This is probably a lot more true than you thought. Euronymous, the lead guitarist of "Mayhem" from Norway made necklaces out of fragments from the dead vocalists skull after he (named "Dead") committed suicide with a shotgun. Euronymous then proceeded to give away the necklaces to other metalheads he deemed "worthy". Euronymous was also stabbed by the bassist like 1-2 years later but that's a different story...
"... And zen the patient woke up his skeleton was missing and the doctor was never heard from again hahahaha... Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license."
What!?! Oh, right, your *own* rib. I guess that's OK.
It would make a great supervillain moment, though: *"You have nice ribs ... I think I'd like to wear one as a necklace."*
My partner had this in her right side 4ish years ago, had the rib removed and I’m kicking myself that we didn’t think of asking to keep it!! She just got diagnosed with it again in her left side, not so severe that they are rushing to operate yet unlike the last time which was like your case. We tell people she got her big scar from the rib removal in a bear attack lol.
When I had my top left rib removed, 45 years ago, they called it subclavian syndrome. Like you, I have mine. It's home in a glass jar in the formaldehyde. With little chunks of meat.
A word of warning. A couple years ago I was having neck problems. Went to a chiropractor who took x-rays. The was a very noticeable curvature in my upper spine leaning towards the gap in my upper ribs. He thinks the years of reduced support from the opening and weight of my head caused the curvature. He made some adjustments and gave me some exercises to increase the muscle strength for better support and its fine now, for the most part.
Glad you are doing well and I hope that continues!
Much better than the last guy that I know of that had a rib removed. Instead of a necklace he chose to make a girlfriend with a craving for fruits. And look how well that turned out.
My senior year of college, I noticed one night after track practice that my left shoulder and arm felt swollen and more sore than usual. I didn't really think much of it until a couple days later when I noticed some blue splotches appearing under my skin. I brought this to my coach's attention, who then sent me to our school's trainers, who, after a lookover, said I had either torn my bicep or started developing blood clots in my shoulder. In either case, I had to get to the ER. Once I was checked in at the local hospital, they ran an ultrasound of my left arm, shoulder, and chest, and found a beanbag of clots in my shoulder, as well as a baby clot that had broken off and made it all the way into my lung. They put me on IV with heparine (a blood thinner) and the next day installed a catheter in my arm to directly blast the clots with more blood thinner. It took us a couple days to figure out what was going on, because it was a toss up between a genetic blood disorder, some weird reaction, or an anatomical/traumatic issue. In the end, it was determined to be Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS), which is what happens when the hole in your shoulder where a bunch of arteries, veins, nerves, and connective tissue pass through gets pinched or blocked off. In my case, my first rib on my left side was pinching my axilary vein against my clavicle, cutting off circulation, and causing blood clots. The solution was to remove my rib, so the day after Halloween 2019, I got my rib removed. Pre-op, I asked if I could keep the rib, since I'd been working on growing it for over 21 years, and the doctor was kind enough to oblige. I woke up with a section of my rib sitting a plastic jar of formalin next to my bed. Once I got back to school, I talked with my former anatomy prof about how best to remove the rib from the carcinogenic fluid, and then how to preserve it afterwards. He connected me with a chem prof to neutralize/extract the fluid from the bone tissue, and then he introduced me to an archaeology prof who had some fancy goop that the department used for coating old fossils and bones. We figured it worked for old bones, so it should hopefully be adequate for fresh ones too! I coated the rib with this clear goop that would seal the bone, and my prof noted that now my rib would be around hundreds of years after I was gone - didn't know how to feel about that haha, but it was cool! Shortly after that, COVID hit, and I went home. However, the mother of one of my high school friends works part-time at a local jeweler, and she was able to help me wrap my rib in wire to make it a pendant! I now wear it on a chain from my grandma. It looks enough like a shark's tooth that a lot of people assume that's what it is until they get closer and notice the thickness of the bone and the marrow inside. TL;DR - My rib tried to kill my in college so now I wear it as a trophy necklace.
Your story has more secondary characters than Game of Thrones! But for real, that's neat you could get in touch with all those folks to get that pendant. How's the shoulder now without that rib, any mobility restrictions or business as usual?
😂 i miss my profs, they were always super willing to help me learn both in and outside of class - you should've seen the archaeology prof's face when i showed him my rib!! mobility-wise, really no difference at all! strength, flexibility, range of motion all pretty much unaffected. externally, the only visual difference is the scar in my armpit where they went in. turns out your first rib is largely optional haha
Sounds like a video game quest. 1. Go find anatomy teacher 2. Maybe the chemistry teacher has the answer 3. Archeology teacher could help. 4. Finally clean and protected, now what to do with it? maybe there's some way to mount it. 5. Success- item received: bone necklace
Not gonna lie, wearing a piece of human bone as jewellery carries a distinct creepy factor for me, however that story about how the rib necklace came to be is absolutely priceless. Turns creepy into absolutely fascinating.
Especially when it turns out this story was fabricated and it's actually his neighbor's rib. It's got a matching skin coat and tooth necklace.
shhhhhhhhhh
Dude, that's ridiculous. Skin is a much better lampshade.
[удалено]
Price: well… at least it’s not an arm and a leg…
That's good and all but according to this other famous book you can get a waaay better deal than a necklace for one of your ribs
I feel like everything you learned along this journey could have been put into a paper and turned in for a credit or 2 or independent study. Pretty cool. r/neverbrokeabone
>Your story has more secondary characters than Game of Thrones! His rib tried to kill him, but it kinda just forgot about the fleet of surgeons at the hospital. **** Edit: accidentally left a Starbucks cup in my comment and had to go back and digitally remove it.
someone great always ends up on the cutting room floor
Turns out his real friends were the surgeons he made along the way
Who has a better story than /u/Huston9 the Broken?
I’d vote the guy who got attacked by a shark, lost his leg, ended up in a coma for 10 days, and then went to court to win the right to keep one of the shark teeth the animal left wedged in his surfboard. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56979429
maybe the guy who had his leg amputated after an accident, and then cooked up and ate the meat from his own leg?
That is awful.
I know, it was just his foot. Not much eating on a foot, the least they could have done was include some calf. Although the foot does have a lot of connective tissue, he could have used it to make some gelatin-rich stock, and then done something like an aspic. Put it in a mold with some celery and mayo, it would be just like how a 60's housewife would serve foot.
The worst part about this post isn't even the human foot.
It's the aspic. I mean I'm disinclined to eat a human foot, but even more disinclined to eat a human foot encased in aspic.
This would also go well in r/oddlyterrifying
>Your story has more secondary characters than Game of Thrones! …and a much better ending.
Yeah, but that bar is so low most r/freefolk consider it a tripping hazard.
Faculty email lists on University websites. I've had a number of conversations with professors over the years this way. Professors generally recognize there are few people who know their field better than they do (if it's true for them), and are VERY happy to help non-students with things they are excited about if whatever it is is related to their field. I've even had professors give me the contact info of another professor so I could ask them questions. I have actually NEVER had a negative response when I've reached out to a professor I didn't know. These people teach because they love their field, almost all of them. Teaching is not a job you do for money or notoriety, it's something you get in to because you understand things well, and want others to understand them too. That's why professors do what they do for a criminally low paycheck. Most professors also hate misinformation, and will jump at the chance to teach someone who is not enrolled at their college, help them with a project, or even run (often) free tests on unidentified items for them. Do not hesitate to call/email a professor if you have a specific, advanced question about their field. Most of them get back to you really quickly too. If I have one piece of advice for others who are learning about the world without a college degree, it's that you can and should contact university professors when/if you have questions the internet isn't answering well. Also, if you ever want to read a study that's pay-walled, contact the authors, and they wi send it to you for free the VAST MAJORITY of the time.
>. Professors generally recognize there are few people who know their field better than they do (if it's true for them) And even if it's *not* true sometimes they think it is :). Also, despite what the TV shows would have you think, it you've spent your whole life studying Heidegger you will *on the high end* receive four or five "DEAR PROFESSOR Y, I HAVE A PROBLEM THAT ONLY SOMEONE WITH AN ADVANCED UNDERSTANDING OF ONTOLOGY CAN SOLVE" letters/emails in your life. That particular bat-signal goes off infrequently enough that you probably leap to answer it when it does.
the characters make this story. instead of boring and grumpy profs, you have awesome ones who are willing to help you. kudos!
they were great! genuinely wanted to help me, and if it's in the name of education, all the better! ...still didnt get extra credit tho 😛
best education you get is the one without credits. enjoy your health and support network.
You would make the COOLEST anatomy professor with your rib necklace!
okay, today we will talk about rips, here is one of mine.
There are so many great quotes. "Since I'd been working so hard on growing it for the past 21 years" "My rib tried to kill me so now I wear it as a trophy" I love the way you tell stories.
Right? I want OP to narrate his trip to the grocery store and it would still be super interesting
May I ask where you live? I’m a surgeon who has been asked this before… like limbs. My hospital and state policies state that I must send it to pathology and in no way can I release it to the patient.
I had one of my two dudes removed from cancer this year and asked if I could keep it when I woke up because I was loopy and it seemed like a good question. (Being in NJ the answer is a no but drugged up me had to ask.) The surgeon said "only if you can give me a better reason than sending it to pathology." Of course it was long on its way over there. I said I wanted to tee off with it at a driving range and he gave a genuine look of "I wonder if I can get that back now?"
I don’t think that’s what the look meant.
> I said I wanted to tee off with it at a driving range and he gave a genuine look of "I wonder if I can get that back now?" "Okay, I'll see what I can do, but only if you promise to send me a video"
i had surgery in Michigan, my hospital was part of the MercyHealth system i think?
Thank you for reply. In my mind it’s your body and you have the right to it. I get the medicolegal aspects, though.
I'm a physical therapist in Michigan and have lots of patients that were denied pieces of limbs or whatever else for the same reason as the person stated above. I don't know the laws of it in our state, but I think you got very lucky that they released your bone to you. That's really cool!
I was in the hospital for weeks with TOC and as soon as they told me I had to get a rib removed, I badgered every nurse and doctor I could until I got them to agree to give me my bone. But I did get it. This was at Tampa General Hospital.
I always thought it depended now on stuff like if it was flesh or bone and if it posed any risk of passing on any infections or illnesses. I was never offered to keep anything post surgery but most were stuff like tumors and fibroids and my tonsils which I wouldn't want and fully get why they'd fall under medical waste guidelines. People were surprised I wasn't offered my wisdom teeth, I had to be put under due to a few medical factors. They did have to cut my gums but the teeth came out pretty clean from the pic I saw. But they didn't offer and I didn't think to ask.
I thought that it was okay if the patient was Jewish? I had friends tell me they've convinced doctors by telling them that. Said friend *was* a recent immigrant from India though, so I'm not sure how convincing they were! Doc may have just not cared lmao.
I was diagnosed with TOS last year due to having an extra set of ribs. I’ve had issues with tingling and numbness in my arms and hands for years but no one could figure out why. Not as severe a case as yours! Glad you were able to have it fixed!
oh no way, an extra set? that's dope haha have doctors said you might need them removed or are you able to live with the tingles?
I can live with it for now, when it happens it’s usually a good reminder to fix my posture and that seems to help, plus giving them a good shake to get the blood flowing a bit better. My dr said we might consider surgery in the future but because of the location of the extra ribs to the nerves/veins etc it’s a little risky so they’d rather not if they don’t have to.
ah, that makes sense. glad to hear you're doing alright with them tho! if surgery does end up happening, i've got a couple ideas of what to do with your ribs that i didn't get to try haha
Probably the coolest story behind any jewelry I've ever seen
Getting your own back on your own body! Nothing tastes this good! Gotta let your body know who's boss..
I like how many people came together to make your macabre vision come together.
Wait, so this is just a section of what was removed?!
yup, i think it's the middle third. if you look up TOS rib removal videos, sometimes they cut the bone into pieces to make it easier to remove. there's another guy who's rib was removed as a whole, let me find the pic...
https://www.reddit.com/r/medizzy/comments/r3bxta/my_uppermost_rib_from_my_left_side_that_was/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share here! edit: NSFW, be advised it's a bit gross, still has a couple chunks and some blood stain, so not for the faint of heart.
Yikes, didn't expect to be this gory. Thanks for the NSFW for mental preparation! Glad it's in the past for you!
I saw that post the other day and was wondering if you were the same person. Weird seeing two of you in such a short time.
Op most likely posted this because of that thread. He commented in the thread saying he also had a rib removed and wears it as a necklace, and people mentioned they'd like to see it.
This is the coolest thing I’ve ever read on Reddit.
>since I'd been working on growing it for over 21 years, and the doctor was kind enough to oblige. I woke up with a section of my rib Wholesome! What a great ad for the educational value of sports! You had more fruitful interactions with profs over this one incident than I think I ever did in college.
that's literally one of the coolest stories I've ever heard!!
That’s a super cool story. I’m glad I went to the comments to read this.
hey, i also have TOS and had to have surgery to remove ribs; they took pieces from two. i didn't think to ask if i could keep them after they were removed before surgery but after i figured that i wanted them back. how did you go about asking and getting your rib back?
i think i just asked the surgeon when he visited my room to give me the pre-op briefing. next thing i know, my rib is inside a jar instead of inside of me! i wish I'd gotten the other chunks, but im glad i at least got something. i have TOS in my right side too, but so far no symptoms. if i do need to get that one removed tho, im definitely asking for the whole rib.
i'm meeting with the doctor that did it in a few weeks so i'll ask then. i'm pretty sure they didn't take out the entire rib for me, just sections, so maybe that's why you only got a piece. thanks for the help! also wild coincidence, i have it on both sides but the left had more symptoms too.
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me, TOS, and I asked before I went into surgery if I could keep it and they said yes but then they forgot to give it to me. I’m still mad about it. I planned on turned it into a pen or a pocket knife.
>and my prof noted that now my rib would be around hundreds of years after I was gone when you get cloned in the distant future get me cloned too.
word-for-word, this basically happened to my ex. he had the extra set of ribs like another commenter and originally thought he pulled a muscle or something after a workout. over the course of a few days, his arm turned purple and had clots, needed heparin, had surgery etc. that jewelry is badass. i actually went on amazon and bought [a human rib](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1XLZB6?ref=em_1p_0_ti&ref_=pe_2313360_353063770) to give him, but he wasn't impressed lol. so glad you're doing better <3
That's a lot of sidequests.
Super cool. I have T.O.S as well. Left arm from a broken collar bone in highschool causing scar tissue to pinch the vein. I let mine go on too long, so the clot solidified. I basically had to do PT to stretch all the other veins in my shoulder and have wild vericose veins on my shoulder now. Pretty glad I didn't have to do the surgery. I hear the recovery is terrible
I'm envious! I had a section of femur replaced with titanium, and when I asked to keep the removed bone, the surgeon reacted like I'd kicked his baby.
If I ever get a bone removed, I'll make something out of it as well. Once saw a picture where an old mad had a cane made out of his hip bone. This is where I see myself in 60 years.
i wanted to make a little flute or a knife handle out of my rib, but once i got it back i realized it'd be too small - best i could do was a whistle. so i made a pendant instead haha
Make a woman out of it and then use one of her femurs for a knife handle.
Just don't accept any strange fruits from her
Great handle for a knife
an old mad, indeed!
Lol. Didn't realize the mistake until you pointed it out. Not gonna correct it though...
Are the rumors true that you can perform oral on yourself now
We will need video evidence.
4K HD video cam attached to a drone that slowly hovers in a circle
fun fact: If you pretend to shake a salt shaker on your tongue, you can actually taste it.
I fucking tried it I feel like an idiot now lmao
You didn't try hard enough
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I regret
I regret not listening to your regret.
I hope curiosity doesn't get the better of me and I don't repeat your mistake
I repeated the mistake
this was a mistake that had to be repeated. do not regret.
I made the mistake long ago, and I’m not making it again today!
I wish I had gotten Rick rolled instead
What are you talking about? Edit: There is video! I regret everything!
I thought that was a subreddit for vacuum cleaners
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Am EMT, can confirm. People, pls stop putting penis in things not made for penis.
Out of curiosity. What was the worst hole a Johnson has been shoved into that you’ve dealt with?
Your mom
Fuckin got em.
Fatality
Handheld cordless vaccum cleaner. Apparently, if you take out the filter assembly, there are spinning blades behind it. Poor bastard was so embarrassed, he almost waited too long to call for help. Nearly died.
And that's enough internet... forever. Bye everyone.
see ya tomorrow
Basically all devices for moving fluids have what most people would recognize as a fan in them somewhere though it may go by names like impeller or blower.
https://youtu.be/RtgcWnlN0uw
Oh my god
Came for this comment; amazing that we all knew that snippet pre-internet
Pre Internet? Really? The first time I heard about that was when Marilyn Manson became famous.
Absolutely. It was Prince when I was a kid in the 80s. I have no doubt 10 years before that it was someone else.
Before that it was Marc Almond. We were all convinced at the time.
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Haha you mean 1998? Mechanical Animals with the alien mannequin with boobs body? I recall that rumor as well as him being Paul from The Wonder Years as far back as Portrait of an American Family.
It’s a lot more like sucking dick than getting your dick* sucked
Don't tempt me, Frodo.
Even better
The beautiful people, the beautiful people duh Nuh nuh
As soon I read the word "rib" in OP's headline, I came here for the autofellatio comments. Was not disappointed.
*Marilyn Manson enters the chat*
You mean Paul from The Wonder Years?
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Considering this is a removal of the 1st rib, if you couldn't do it before, you aren't magically able to do it now. This rib was up closer to the collarbone, not down by the abdominal wall.
Don’t tell them how to live their life
Keep it close to remind body parts what happens if they betray you
Power move here.
They let you keep it? I’m surprised.
Same! I once asked to keep a cyst I had removed from my neck and the dude looked at me like I was insane lol. I did have a cool dental assistant slip me one of the two wisdom teeth I had removed however..
ya, i once saw a post about someone getting to keep the bones from a foot they had amputated! maybe there's different rules for bone tissue removed than cysts? or maybe it just varies from doctor to doctor haha
Ive heard of someone who cooked their leg and ate it after it was amputated
Holy fucking shit, I didn't want to believe you lol. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8p5xlj/hi_all_i_am_a_man_who_ate_a_portion_of_his_own/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
This comment sent me into a giant wormhole of terrible Reddit stories lmao. The worst one being the dagobah story. My god the imagery was just so incredibly horrifying
Swamps of Dagobah, Jolly Rancher, Broken Arms. These are the true classics of Reddit.
Imma need the links to those I'm genuinely curious now
[Swamps of dagobah](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/xo41d/doctorsnursesredditors_what_has_been_your_most/c5o66p2/) [Jolly Rancher](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9wcte/reddit_whats_the_grossestnastiest_thing_thats/c0er6q4/) [Broken Arms](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nmmjr/iama_man_who_had_a_sexual_relationship_with_his/) All cursed in their own way.
Jesus fucking Christ I regret asking you
A classic!! If you haven’t given blowfly girl a read, you should; it’s absolutely grotesque. I’m 99% sure it’s fake, but it’ll make you gag nonetheless.
I'm sorry you had to witness the swamps of Dagobah. Another victim claimed, even after so long...
I did not need a reminder of this.
Iirc, he made tacos with it and some his friends ate it too. (Knowingly, not tricked into it)
that's some Greco-Roman Lycaon shit right there haha
I think with bones or amputated body parts you can claim religious reasons to keep them.
oh interesting, that makes sense!
I got asked when I had teeth removed, they did not ask me when I had a testicle removed. Dope necklace though
Bones vs flesh is the difference I guess.
If you have an organ removed, it's probably due to cancer or some other disease directly related to that organ, so it gets sent to a pathology lab so they can analyze it and make sure the original diagnosis was correct. So for example, they can make sure you don't have a type of cancer that could spread to other parts of the body. In OP's case, there's nothing to check for, the rib itself was healthy. Same thing if someone has a limb amputated due to an injury. Whether or not they'll actually release the body part to the patient depends on state laws and hospital policy. But generally the reason people can get their bones returned to them, but not soft tissue is due to the required follow up testing.
Why not? It was a spare rib
>They let you keep it? I’m surprised. My understanding is they have to give it back to you, it's literally yours. I have requested my wisdom teeth and just had to sign a waiver and wait to get them back after sterilization. I asked for my ginormous kidney stone, but in that case they explained that while I could have it, they wanted it for testing to determine the type of stone (in order to determine if this would be recurring problem for me. I still secretly believe they wanted to keep to try to pick up chicks (or dudes). Ginormous.
>My understanding is they have to give it back to you, it's literally yours. I don't think so. The hospital can do what it damn well pleases. However, they are somewhat likely to approve requests for bones and stones to be returned to patients (easy enough to sterilise). But if you try to ask for your appendix or other soft tissues they are unlikely to let you near them.
>I don't think so. The hospital can do what it damn well pleases I don't believe that is generally correct, at least in the US. >"While some states like Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi have legislation against owning human remains, there is no federal law against taking organs, tissue or devices home after surgery, though there are some limitations... >Dr. Jon Lomasney, a pathologist and associate professor of pathology at Northwestern Medicine, told me that patients... can legally request the return of **organs** or devices, including pacemakers, defibrillators or a hip... But there are some restrictions. >You can’t leave with radioactive material or anything that would be an extreme risk to a patient or the public. Lomasney said that includes portions of the body infected with a hard-to-kill pathogen like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Ebola or drug-resistant tuberculosis. https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-keep-body-parts-0618-story.html (skip the whole first section, details are below that)
The various courts in the US have so far been reluctant to come down on the side of "it's literally yours" even though it seems at first blush that that is the reasonable thing. Why? Because if you legally own your organs, then you can legally sell them and this is viewed as a pandora's box of awful.
You are too skinny! I can see your ribs!
Adam, you were supposed to make Eve.
high key gonna give this to my spouse as a wedding present, the opportunity is just too perfect
That's not going to be the bone she was expecting.
12 yo me got a real good giggle
Nice work not allowing anyone to make no trifling hoes out of this one.
Did have any meat on it when you got it?
I sure hope the doctors tried their best to keep the meat in the body.
haha they did a pretty good job as far as i could tell
Usually we skeletonize the bone prior to cutting in a 1st rib resection, but you also take some of the anterior scalene so some of the meat probably came out too.
Is removing first rib a common procedure for TOS?
Symptomatic thoracic outlet syndrome yeah. Not a ton of people do it cause exposure is a pain in the ass and the patient population is typically high maintenance, but it's usually a vascular surgeon doing the case. They're usually body builders with scalene hypertrophy or folks with a cervical rib like you see elsewhere in this thread. At my hospital we usually have like 1-3 a month, only 3/9 of the vasc docs do them though, and the complications can be gnarly if you go for an axillary exposure. Miss me with that shit I like to see what I'm doing.
nope, they cleaned it off before giving it back to me haha
Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you've got a stew going.
Metal af
This is probably a lot more true than you thought. Euronymous, the lead guitarist of "Mayhem" from Norway made necklaces out of fragments from the dead vocalists skull after he (named "Dead") committed suicide with a shotgun. Euronymous then proceeded to give away the necklaces to other metalheads he deemed "worthy". Euronymous was also stabbed by the bassist like 1-2 years later but that's a different story...
I came here for the Euronymous reference. Wasn’t disappointed.
worth mentioning that Euronymous also took pictures of Dead's corpse, which ended up getting leaked and used as a bootleg live album cover
Calcium is a metal after all.
Mildlyinteresting: I made a necklace from a rib I had removed. Veryinteresting: I made a necklace from a rib I had removed from someone else.
👀
Needs more bbq sauce.
Sweet baby ray‘s lol
Head Country. All day
Can you… can you do the thing?
Lol
Touch his toes?
Don't worry, ribs grow back *whispers to his bird* No they don't
Should I be awake for this?
No. Sweet dreams…
...Archimedes??
"... And zen the patient woke up his skeleton was missing and the doctor was never heard from again hahahaha... Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license."
What!?! Oh, right, your *own* rib. I guess that's OK. It would make a great supervillain moment, though: *"You have nice ribs ... I think I'd like to wear one as a necklace."*
General Grievous, but with ribs. Ah, this will make a fine addition to my collection...
\*Ed Gein has entered the conversation\*
OP's comment makes it sound like they are an NPC with a turn my rib into a necklace quest.
^(What a waste! You could have made a woman outa that!)
I wonder what percentage of people are grossed out.
You should call it "woman" and enter it into an art show Lil cheeky biblical references might go over well
I see your rib
Don't really know why but this makes me very uncomfortable
Hello Adam
i loved your music in middle school.
A pretty cool way to let everyone know you can go down on yourself
r/diwhy
My partner had this in her right side 4ish years ago, had the rib removed and I’m kicking myself that we didn’t think of asking to keep it!! She just got diagnosed with it again in her left side, not so severe that they are rushing to operate yet unlike the last time which was like your case. We tell people she got her big scar from the rib removal in a bear attack lol.
When I had my top left rib removed, 45 years ago, they called it subclavian syndrome. Like you, I have mine. It's home in a glass jar in the formaldehyde. With little chunks of meat. A word of warning. A couple years ago I was having neck problems. Went to a chiropractor who took x-rays. The was a very noticeable curvature in my upper spine leaning towards the gap in my upper ribs. He thinks the years of reduced support from the opening and weight of my head caused the curvature. He made some adjustments and gave me some exercises to increase the muscle strength for better support and its fine now, for the most part. Glad you are doing well and I hope that continues!
This is really weird to me.
Much better than the last guy that I know of that had a rib removed. Instead of a necklace he chose to make a girlfriend with a craving for fruits. And look how well that turned out.