Euuuuwwwww! They kept what? (mild)

[CanvasShoes]

Okay, so......I got my staples out today, and got my orders from the doc, along with a rather cool "Darth Vadar" type custom boot cast thing.

Anyway, when the PA was finished taking out the staples, she asked me if I wanted to KEEP them!!!!

I asked "do people really DO that"? She said "oh yeah, all the time".

My response was a hearty "eeeeuuuuuuWWWW! Has anyone else here kept a "souvenir of an operation or whatnot?

What are your thoughts? Gross? or normal?

[NightRabbit]

I haven't, but I would. Then I would sell it on Ebay...

[Smeghead]

Well, it's not like the hospital or office or whatever wants 'em. If they can convince YOU to take them off your hands, they save the cost of disposing of them. Which is, like, probably about ten cents in this case, but still.

[Ol'Gaffer]

I asked for my wife's gallstones when she had her gall bladder removed.

But the most disturbing thing I have experienced was the couples in our birthing class who were discussing what they were going to do with the placenta after their child was born.

[Hanna]

I had my one and only wisdom tooth yanked out a few years ago, and the dentist gave it back to me in a little plastic treasure-chest shaped box. It's pretty gruesome, a big old tooth in a box, but I don't want to throw it out.

[Spacegirl]

I kept my cast after I broke my arm, but my parents threw it out because it stunk.

After my mom's liver transplant the doctor asked her if she wanted to look at her (old) liver. She declined.

[Miller]

After my uncle was born, my mom took and hid the umbilical cord. I forget how long she kept it: a couple of months, at least, maybe a year. Eventually, the dog ate it.

[slice]

I got my wisdom teeth back too, but in a little plastic envelope type thing. (Boscibo, I am jealous of your plastic treasure chest.)

The nurse asked if I wanted them and I thought I said no, but apparently with all the drugs I was on, it came out something like "hot damn I do, just plop those suckers right on my chest." 'Cause that's what she did.

I think it's kind of creepy to keep stuff like that. Gaffer, what do people do with the placenta? Wait, never mind. I just don't want to know.

[Triss]

One of my aunts told me to keep my newborn's umbilical scab after if fell off, then take it outside and burn it for good luck.

Ummmmm.....no.


But, my mother did keep her gallstones. There were two and they were oddly identical looking. Much like two small sesame-seed balls or something.

She joked that she was going to have them shellacked and made into earrings.

[altoid]

My cat ate an unknown object that got stuck in his intestines. $1,100 later it was removed. The vet showed it to me so that I could attempt to identify what he ate. It was unidentifiable, but I kept my cat's $1,100 snack.

[Miller]

I think it's kind of creepy to keep stuff like that. Gaffer, what do people do with the placenta?

Some folks eat it.

[/quote]Wait, never mind. I just don't want to know.[/quote]

Oops. Sorry.

[Morrigoon]

Worse, some people paint with it (forget where I heard that... grossed me out too much to try to remember it)

I mean, beyond donating or saving the cord blood, what use is the placenta after birth? Seriously?!

[Khan]

...



My wisdom teeth were pulled out intact and those bastards just threw mine away! I wanted to keep them, damnit!

[Larry Mudd]

I gotcha all beat:

My mum kept my freakin' dessicated foreskin pressed into a photo album with my baby pictures, until I indignantly threw it out when I was a teenager.

I'm sure that number of times I heard her point it out to blanching visitors, (taking care to point out how remarkably small it was, of course,) would provide fodder for years of therapy, if I could afford it.

What possesses people to do these things?

[Miller]

Revenge for a difficult birth?

[CherryBomb]

Originally posted by Morrigoon
I mean, beyond donating or saving the cord blood, what use is the placenta after birth? Seriously?!

I've heard it's quite excellent pan fried in some butter and garlic and served with a nice chianti!

[gotpasswords]

Trust me. You don't want to know about placenta stew, even if Cecil wrote it.

Somewhere, I've got three of my wisdom teeth. Not sure, but think my mother may have her gallstone in roughly the same plae she has the kids' baby teeth.

[Smeghead]

Google "placenta lasagna" if you're every REALLY hard up for dinner ideas.

[Lyllyan]

I had a C-section and they let me take the baby home, does that count?

[Flashpaper Tiger]

I wanted the placenta when my daughter was born - I was going to plant a rosebush on top of it. The birth center wouldn't give it to me, saying it was considered biohazardous waste, and had to be appropriately disposed of.

I do have my wisdom teeth though.

[GuyMontag]

Not people related, but when I was in Vet Medicine, owners would occassionally ask to take home their dog's testicles after neutering.

[Nanoda]

Seems normal to me. Going to the hospital for something is a major event for most people. (Children for sure). You bought those postcards and t-shirts when you went to Disneyland and Mexico, right? right?

When I was 9 or so my brother smacked me on the head with a broom (he was trying to balance it or something - I'd smacked him similarly a few years before. Fair is fair.) necessitating stiches, which the doctor later gave to me. Kept those for a while. Kindof a "Look what I had to have in my head to keep from bleeding all over!" brand of cool. Today it'd have to be titanium screws or something to be really interesting.

[bayonet1976]

Since we're talking about teeth, my wife and I have kept the baby teeth of all 3 of our kids. The grandmothers want us to give them one of each, so they can have them made into pendants to wear*. That's not weird, is it? Hellooooo....., anyone?.....

*This is a very Cuban custom, maybe spanish.

[Skerri]

My vet gave my former roommate his cat's testicles after they were removed. The roomie was kidding around, and asked if he could have them after the surgery. The vet, who is a real smartass, saved them and put them in a sample jar. When the roomie went to pick up the cat, the vet just handed him the jar and walked out of the room.

When I had a mole removed from my face last week, I asked the doctor if I could see it after the surgery. They showed it to me (really gross) but then they had to send it off to be tested, so no take home goodies. Oh well.

[Ms Boods]

More animal fun: a wether is a castrated ram (wethers are mostly sold as meat, but sometimes they are kept in the flock as company for the ewes or as part of a 'spinner's flock' like my own), and I recall reading a few years ago about a pair of sheep-raising sisters who were making a fortune selling the dried, wool covered scrotal sacks as cat toys...

I'll admit, I have one from one of my own sheep, and my cats love it....it just looks like a fluffy cat toy, so it's fab to tell visitors what it really is....how I got it from this sheep, who is called Demon Baby, is not a story for the faint of heart. But it goes a long way to explaining his personality.

Meanwhile, not only did my mum keep all of my baby teeth, but they're mixed in with her favourite dog's....should her jewelry box survive the armageddon, there's going to be one confused archaeologist down the road...

[Cobalt]

When I was shot in the face with a BB gun as a kid, my family kept the BB after the surgeons removed it. (I don't know if we asked for it, though.)

I should ask my parents where it's stored nowadays...

[CanvasShoes]

Originally posted by Larry Mudd
I gotcha all beat:

My mum kept my freakin' dessicated foreskin pressed into a photo album with my baby pictures, until I indignantly threw it out when I was a teenager.

I'm sure that number of times I heard her point it out to blanching visitors, (taking care to point out how remarkably small it was, of course,) would provide fodder for years of therapy, if I could afford it.

What possesses people to do these things?

Oh EEEEEEEEEUUUUUWWW!

Larry, You WIN!!! yucko!!!

[Berkut]

I kept my kidney stone for quite some time.

I just didn't have the heart to get rid of little Joey the Third.

[Caricci]

My sister is still pissed that she didn't get my gallbladder after the surgery. It was apparently huge and chock full of stones and she had planned on giving it a squeeze. She's so gross.

[Tuckerfan]

Originally posted by Caricci
My sister is still pissed that she didn't get my gallbladder after the surgery. It was apparently huge and chock full of stones and she had planned on giving it a squeeze. She's so gross.

Say, is she single?

[teela brown]

I had my gallbladder removed in '92, using the non-invasive camera style surgery. I can't remember what they called it, but I can't pronounce it anyway.

Anyhoo, they took video film of what was happening inside of me during the surgery, and the surgeon asked me if I wanted a copy of it for home viewing.

Errr, no. I don't want to view my living, pulsating guts, thankyouverymuch.

[MsRobyn]

pugluvr, it's laparoscopic surgery.

I had my tonsils in a little plastic jar with formaldehyde for a while, until I donated it to my seventh-grade science teacher.

I've also got Aaron's umbilical cord stump, and a sample of the cord blood is kept in San Antonio for possible future use.

Didn't get to keep the foreskin, though.

Robin

[Zazie]

I believe you can keep the placenta and the cord of your baby for medical reasons. Well, the hospital keep those for you!

I have my wisdom teeth! Actually, I think I kept them for a while and threw them away as I really wonder what the purpose was.

I had a piece of bone removed from my ankle and I wanted to see it, but the doctors got rid of it...

[Ms Boods]

Keeping with the Pascal season, please note that several churches in the Middle Ages claimed to have Christ's foreskin and also Mary's breastmilk as venerable relics....

[Skerri]

Oh, I have a complete video of my knee surgery. Lots of fun at parties.

"What the hell is this video we're watching?"
"Oh, it's my knee surgery. See how they had to shave part of the bone off?"

My pediatrician used to keep everything he retrieved from his patients. He would put the object in a little ziploc bag, and put it on a bulletin board in the hallway of his office. Kids put amazing things in their ears, noses, eyes, etc.

[JayElle]

I really, really wanted to keep my gallstone. The surgeon said it was one of the biggest stones he'd ever seen, so the greedy bastard kept it for himself.

[Greywolf73]

The doctor that delivered my daughter via C-Section told me that he was retiring and that my daughter was his last baby delivery ever. He came by my hospital room the next day and gave me the towel clamps and two pairs of scissors he'd used during the procedure.

[Harli]

A friend of mine had staples in his legs for quite some time. He got to keep them when they were removed. You can still see some bone fragment on one of them. It's pretty cool.
This guy is now going through school to become a coroner, so, no surprise that he would want to keep something like that.

I have all four of my wisdom teeth in an envelope. I like looking at them now and then. They've still got some dried blood on them.
I heard of a guy who had holes drilled into his and he wore them on a necklace. I thought about doing this, but just never got around to it.

[whiterabbit]

When I was twelve I had to be put under to get four of my teeth (I forget which, but it was prior to my getting braces) out plus my bottom wisdom teeth buds -- those were why I was put under, since they had to dig into my jaw after them.

I WANTED to keep my teeth, but they insisted that they HAD to throw them away. My own teeth which had been in my own mouth were too unsanitary for me to take home, or something like that. Idiots.

[Diane]

After my uncle was born, my mom took and hid the umbilical cord. I forget how long she kept it: a couple of months, at least, maybe a year. Eventually, the dog ate it.

Good God, I am turning green.

I know of a few WWII guys who have shrapnel that worked it's way out of their bodies years later, mounted and framed with their Purple Heart medals.

(Ewwwwww, Jebus, the dog really ATE it? :::shiver::: )

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by Larry Mudd
I gotcha all beat:

My mum kept my freakin' dessicated foreskin pressed into a photo album with my baby pictures...

My mother still has both my foreskin and a piece of my umbilical cord. They're in a robins-egg blue shoe box. She showed 'em off when my wife and I visited maybe a year ago. My wife thought it was cute.

I assume my mom still has the same items from my brother, but I pointedly did not ask to see them.

[Avalonian]

Originally posted by Flashpaper Tiger
I wanted the placenta when my daughter was born - I was going to plant a rosebush on top of it. The birth center wouldn't give it to me, saying it was considered biohazardous waste, and had to be appropriately disposed of.

Huh... that's surprising. The birth center my wife and I were using was going to allow us to keep our last daughter's placenta. When we wound up having to go to the hospital after all, they were still cool about it and let us keep it. They even boxed it up very securely in a thick plastic container for us, sort of like Tupperware.

We buried it in the ground (deep), and planted a small tree over it. It's my favorite feature of the front yard, even though the Japanese maple overshadows it quite a bit.

[DeVena]

I had a large (10 lb) cyst removed - My husband wanted to keep it (ick) but it had to be tested. Thank Og!

Then I had a Kidney Stone - They lasered it out and showed that to him but said it was all in little pieces.

My mom went in for an angiogram, and the doctor came out to the waiting room to tell use the news and that she was ok but they found a blockage. I'm nosy so I asked where and how big, etc. Doc got real excited and took the whole family back to the operating room so we could watch the x-ray video of it. It was so funny - "ok this is the entry...fast forward... this is important... OOOO this is good!" He was so happy to have someone interested in the actual procedure!!

[Cat Whisperer]

Originally posted by Larry Mudd
I gotcha all beat:

My mum kept my freakin' dessicated foreskin pressed into a photo album with my baby pictures, until I indignantly threw it out when I was a teenager.

I'm sure that number of times I heard her point it out to blanching visitors, (taking care to point out how remarkably small it was, of course,) would provide fodder for years of therapy, if I could afford it.

What possesses people to do these things?

Too bad you threw it out; maybe you could have re-hydrated it and had it sewn back on (JDT? You listening?)

[big alex]

Mine isn't really that interesting after seeing some of the others, but I have still got the screws that were in my leg for a year, after fracturing my femur.

[Azure Eternity]

When I was in seventh grade, I broke both bones in my arm and had to have a titanium rod put in. After a few months, they took it out and I got to keep it. My dad attached it to a cylindrical piece of wood and now I use it to roast marshmallows. People always ask me if I washed it beforehand, and I say that I sure didn't, but hopefully the hospital did because there was no blood on it.

[Tsubaki]

My dad still has the bullet which caused him to be brought home early from Vietnam. No, I remember now, it was stolen last year (stupid bastard kids).

My husband won't throw away the spine from a snapper fin which became embedded in his finger nine years ago.

I have my son's baby teeth (the other two kids haven't lost any teeth yet).

Japanese tradition is to keep the bit of umbilical cord which falls off the baby after about a week. The hospital gives you a little box to keep it in and everything. My son wanted to see it the other day, but was really disappointed to see it was so small. I think he was hoping I'd have the whole cord. He's lucky I have it at all; I actually threw it out, but managed to retrieve it from the rubbish bin when my MIL had a fit.

[Ol'Gaffer]

Hey all. I've been away for awhile and am glad to see that placentas have been quite a popular topic. In any case, in our baby class of 8 mothers, 4 were planning on keeping it. A 50% rate! Kind of high I thought, but it was in Santa Cruz after all. Two of the mothers were planning on burying it and planting a tree over it while the other two were both planning on ingesting it - one as a a quiche and the other as tea!