If you had an accident of some sort and lost a body part, which was found, but unsalvageable, what would you want done with it? Let’s say it’s a pinky finger. Would you want it buried somewhere, so you could kind of “remember” it, or just have it done away with, unknowingly, by the hospital?
Along the same topic:
I have heard of people saving surgically removed whats-its and preserving them, like a kidney stone, e.g. Has anyone here “preserved” a removed part of themself? Got bezoars? lol eeeewww
I think if I lost a significant extremity,like an arm or leg, I would want to have it cremated and saved. “See that urn on the mantle, that used to be my arm!” Kind of creepy, but not really. Now if I lost a hand, I would never want it buried, intact. Several horror movies come to mind, and I would be creeped out.
MSK, have you ever read a story called (I think) “Hairball” by Margaret Atwood? It’s in her collection “Wilderness Tips”, and has a very interesting and amusing situation like you described.
I would take it to the taxidermist. If is was small like a finger or toe. I but it on a necklace. larger like a hand or foot. Make it paperweight. Leg or arm. I would make a lamp out of it or something. Now wouldn’t any of those be great discussion pieces?
I heard a story of some guy… I can’t remember who but he was a governer of some state at one time… he lost a leg and it was buried with full honors and years later he died and had an extremely cheap funeral etc… much cheaper then what was given for his leg… weird huh?
How do we lose the extremity? Severed? That can be reattached. Gangrene? No salvaging it. Mangled? No salvaging it. I can’t think of a single way to lose an extremity and not be able to have it reattached.
BUT if there was, I’d have it preserved and mounted like a fish.
My uncle lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. I’ve never heard what he had done with it. I think it was tore up and mangled really bad, so I suppose he trashed it.
Ewww… I just had a weird thought. What if you had it rubberized and preserved, and then cut in half, gutted, and made into a ‘covering’ for your artificial leg? What a sick fucking idea.
No body parts to speak of. But, I still have the plates and screws that held me left forarm together for about a year. They look like something out of an Erector set and I keep them in a plastic cup in my closet. Is that close enough?
I had my aortic valve replaced with a mechanical valve when I was 16. I asked about the original valve, and they said they took it off to be biopsied.
Fast forwards ten years. I had an aortic aneurism, which neccesitated replacing the mechanical valve with a new one. I’ve got the old mechanical valve at home, and have been trying to decide what to do with it ever since.
You could encase it in resin, especially if it’s only a digit.
The plastic resin you can buy at art stores (only in some states, though- the fumes it emits while it’s solidifying are horrendous) is great for that sort of thing.
Whenever one of my goldfish die, I encase the fish in resin.
I’m making a fish-mobile, but it’s taking a long time because i won’t kill a goldfish on purpose and none of them seem to be dying anymore.
my friend’s mom kept all her kids umbilical cords after they fell off, which i thought was kinda weird. maybe it was just the fact that they were all shriveled up and pruny looking. kinda gross. on a similar note, another friend of mine had a baby recently. they kept the placenta and planted it with an aloe plant. the aloe plant had little babies of its own, and they gave me one. it’s doing really well, considering i don’t have the greenest of thumbs.
I don’t know who you have in mind, but that DID happen with Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, the Mixican general, presidente, and dictator. He lost his leg at the battle at Tampico (well after the Alamo) and had it buried with honors. Later, when he fell out of favor the citizenry dug it up and scattered the parts. He himself lived on for decades afterwards, dying when almost 90 years old, penniless.He was buried in the pauper’s part of the cemetary. See James Michener’s book “The Eagle and the Raven”.
Some Native Americans feel that if you aren’t buried with all your parts (attached or not), then your spirit is unable to comlete its final journey. (or something like that.)
Personally, I wouldn’t want to keep whatever it was around. I do still have baby teeth and my wisdom teeth and that’s just about gross enough for me.
No body parts, thank you. I don’t have the storage.
A guy in one of my writing classes wrote a story where a guy accidentally cut off his hand, then found it a few days later in his freezer. I suppose this is a compliment to his creative writing abilities, but tossing it in the freezer doesn’t seem so bad - leaves many opportunities for quiet introspection (or so the story goes)…
I “lost” something more than an arm or leg - my brother.
When he died and was cremated each of the three of us remaining brothers received a small, glass container with cremains in it. I have Mark sitting on my dresser at home.
Appropos of this discussion, I just heard on the radio the other day about a doctor who had been disciplined for using a patient’s amputated foot as crab bait.
