Spare Parts.

[Homicidalheathen]

If a doctor told you that having something removed would prevent illness later on, but you were pretty much ok now, with maybe some minor problems.....would you have something removed?

Personally I hold onto all my parts with a vengance....I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Onyx]

I've faced this question since my early 20s. My mom and grandmother have both had breast cancer and my grandmother died of it, so I'm very high risk.

I had a doc tell me I should have a double mastectomy (even though my breasts are healthy now) to prevent the chances of developing cancer. This is when I was in my 20s. My mom heard him say that and wanted me to go ahead. I wouldn't consider it. I guess if I get cancer then I'll be sorry, but damn, I don't want to chop off pieces of me on the chance it might delay death a bit (especially pieces I like).

I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then what would all that pain and suffering have been for?

I feel a lot of doctors are too quick to suggest surgery.

[BrassFusion]

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. They hurt a little because they're erupting. *shrug*

[honeymustard02]

My eyes work just fine, should I remove them now incase I go blind in the future?

I think I'd wait till the problem hits instead of taking it out and never knowing if it would happen.

[Homicidalheathen]

I still have my tonsils...but I did wait to get the bad part of my guts removed and regret it. I totally get this breast thing though....no way would I want to loose them unless it were absolutly necessary.....I didn't even know doctors would suggest it!

I've faced this question since my early 20s. My mom and grandmother have both had breast cancer and my grandmother died of it, so I'm very high risk.

I had a doc tell me I should have a double mastectomy (even though my breasts are healthy now) to prevent the chances of developing cancer. This is when I was in my 20s. My mom heard him say that and wanted me to go ahead. I wouldn't consider it. I guess if I get cancer then I'll be sorry, but damn, I don't want to chop off pieces of me on the chance it might delay death a bit (especially pieces I like).

I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then what would all that pain and suffering have been for?

I feel a lot of doctors are too quick to suggest surgery.

[Steven]

leave your boobies alone ladies.

1/2 jack: your thoughts on transplantation/donation, and are any of your driver's liscenses marked as donors?

why or why not?

[BrassFusion]

mine's marked as donor because i won't need organs after i die, no matter where i go.

i hope.

hopefully transplatation and donation will be obsolete someday in the light of bionic and cloning advances. someday.

[bean]

Mine is marked as donor as well because when I go, I plan to be cremated and it would be a waste to burn up parts that could save someone else's life.

Doctors like to suggest surgery when something goes wrong or potentially could go wrong because it is cheaper on insurance (or so I have heard...who knows) in the long run.

If a doctor told me removing something could prevent future illness, I wouldn't do it because nothing is for sure. I may not end up getting that illness and I would have removed a part of me for nothing.

[BrassFusion]

When it's something like cancer, preventive maintenance might be called for... and beanie, that's your sexiest av pic EVER. and you've had some sexy av pix.

[Homicidalheathen]

Doner. I won't need it whatever it is...anymore....and if anything is usable by science just to study something....they can have that too.

[bean]

When it's something like cancer, preventive maintenance might be called for... and beanie, that's your sexiest av pic EVER. and you've had some sexy av pix.

hehe, thank you...

[Gauge]

I've faced this question since my early 20s. My mom and grandmother have both had breast cancer and my grandmother died of it, so I'm very high risk.

I had a doc tell me I should have a double mastectomy (even though my breasts are healthy now) to prevent the chances of developing cancer. This is when I was in my 20s. My mom heard him say that and wanted me to go ahead. I wouldn't consider it. I guess if I get cancer then I'll be sorry, but damn, I don't want to chop off pieces of me on the chance it might delay death a bit (especially pieces I like).

I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then what would all that pain and suffering have been for?

I feel a lot of doctors are too quick to suggest surgery.

heh deja vu, i got told the very same thing. i was. . .17ish tho

[pharoh]

When it's something like cancer, preventive maintenance might be called for... and beanie, that's your sexiest av pic EVER. and you've had some sexy av pix.

Ya I want robot legs....

[Steven]

3/4 Jack: anybody ever consider being a Live Donor?

why or why not?

questions?

Comments?

[BrassFusion]

3/4 Jack: anybody ever consider being a Live Donor?

why or why not?

questions?

Comments?

sure, if it's a part i don't particularly need, like 1 of 2 healthy kidneys.

i've been trying to lose weight anyway

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Would depend on how convincing the speech was.

Took me years to buy into the dentist telling me i should have my wisdom teeth pulled.

Guessing it would take an even strong argument if they said your spleen needs to go evetnually..but not right now.

I'd be holding off not nessisarly becasue i thought they were wrong, just out of fear i guess? The fact that hope srpings eternal and maybe it would just get better on its own?

In reference to onyx's comments above: im with you there.

[sass_in_the_pants]

To Steven's jack: Yes, I considered it. I tried it. No match. No dice. So she waited longer and got a kidney. Happy day!

Being a living donor is a VERY serious donation to make. The health impacts it can have on the donor can be quite difficult. I don't know if I would have eventually chickened out. It was all very scary at the time. Steven, I remember reading a post a long time ago where you said you were a living donor. Way to go, chap!

I donate my blood...mostly just because I like to get the cookies though.

[Steven]

sure, if it's a part i don't particularly need, like 1 of 2 healthy kidneys.

i've been trying to lose weight anyway

I gained 30 lbs after giving mine up, Love. And I was physically "weakend" at the core - for the first time in my life, which turned out to be quite a mental struggle for me, as I have had problems learning to say "help me". It even challenged me within my marriage, for exactly that reason.

It also taught me a great deal about myself. And it changed my outlook on life, and sprituality, and personal challenge and teh value fo everyday people. It also divided my family - as half of them are JW's who are strongly convicted about issues concerning blood. The whole expereince is/was a complicated thing.

and one I reccomend. Not only because there are thousands of dying people waiting on a list for cadaver tissue that might match, but because of what you will experience overall.

granted, its not for everybody.

but its also not as simple as just giving up a gut.

[Steven]

To Steven's jack: Yes, I considered it. I tried it. No match. No dice. So she waited longer and got a kidney. Happy day!

Being a living donor is a VERY serious donation to make. The health impacts it can have on the donor can be quite difficult. I don't know if I would have eventually chickened out. It was all very scary at the time. Steven, I remember reading a post a long time ago where you said you were a living donor. Way to go, chap!

I donate my blood...mostly just because I like to get the cookies though.

I remember the feeling and the growing tension as I passed each phase of testing and the inevitable drew near.

And your absolutely right - it IS going to have a huge impact on your personal health, its an invasion of your body, they literally cut you in half and re-plumb your groceries, then take somethign away from you, destroy your immune system with anti-biotics (I got a yeast infection in my entire intestinal tract and throat that was hell) stitch you back up and send you on your way. Obviously your body freaks out for awhile. ANd then the next couple of years it's literally healing....you get very tired very easily.

But your head trips too. They provide you with counselors to help with that. Sometimes people who receive the kidney - reject it soon afterward - and al that "hell" turns out to be for nothing. Or - the recipient may go on to lead a lifestyle that is not conducive to maintaining that donor tissue - and that too - can be difficult to put into perspective.

and sometimes people change their mind at the last minute, and decide that they do not wish to donate, which also happens frequently, and that's ok, because in reality yes you can die. thats jsut a fact. it almost never happens, but if does happen. I know a Hollywood actress who became a friend (sort of) of mine. She met me through a phtographer I know. She knows my story and asked me many questions. She started getting involved to a degree - and seriously considered being a donor for a boy I was trying to help. But she was way too caught up in the romaticism of it all and her husband did not support it - he was pretty angry and thought it was too risky. They have a good life, big bucks, get to do whatever they want. All that could change forever by donating. She was about to meet this boy anyway and begin the testing phase. I thought that was not cool and I told her that. We argued back and forth about it - and I told her she did not have the right to raise this kid's hope and then possibly pull out at the last minute. And she did exactly that - she pulled out from pressure from her husband, so she really was NOT the right person to consider doantion. She is also a famous tree hugger (I think it pisses her off when I call her that) as well and a humanitarian and all that crap. But she almost fucked somebody up for selfish reasons that she did not even recognize in herself.

this thing WILL test you.

a year after my transplant surgery I bought my first house.

across the street from me was a lady named Marlene.

She was green. her eyes were yellow. from Hepatitis. she needed a liver (you can donate a lobe of live liver tissue). Nobody in her family was a match, those that were willing, and she would not allow her kids to test. I watched her dying for two years, she was a cool lady and I dug her. She had a garden and would leave tomatoes on my doorstep. I tried to find someone to consider testing for her and failed. I tried thru local chruches, thru letters, organizations, etc. The I moved here. a year later she got her transplant. Fucking cool as hell. I dont think my expereince and then meeting another donor in need was coincidental.

But thats a thread jack aint it??

I dont know how to get into this subject without telling my story.

but if any of you ever do consider anythign like this - I will meet with you to discuss it.

[JaneDead]

If a doctor told me removing something could prevent future illness, I wouldn't do it because nothing is for sure. I may not end up getting that illness and I would have removed a part of me for nothing.

exactly. and this reminded me -though it is NOT the same- of when i was little and the dentist said i would need braces. not sure why because my teeth are prefectly straight and fine and always have been and even then my teeth were perfectly straight ( i have a small mouth so he assumed i would need them but i also have short little teeth that fit in there just fine )

so even though my story is not about a dr telling me to remove something, it is still a dr that told me something would happen that never did. braces would have been the biggest waste of money.

and i would never remove something "just in case". at least nothing major internally and nothing at all externally (boob, arm, leg, toe etc) unless something was actually in fact wrong/going wrong.

[sass_in_the_pants]

Oh and to respond to the original post:

no.

And I can't believe a doctor would EVER suggest something as serious as a masectomy to "prevent" breast cancer. Goes to show you that there are alot of quack doctors out there.

Anyway, no, if it aint broke, don't fix it. ALL surgery is a risk. And there is no need to take that sort of risk unnecessarily.

[BrassFusion]

Tell that to the supertards on those "extreme makeover" shows.

"We're going to give her a nosejob and a breast reduction so her TRUE beauty shines through!"

[sass_in_the_pants]

Tell that to the supertards on those "extreme makeover" shows.

"We're going to give her a nosejob and a breast reduction so her TRUE beauty shines through!"

You're not kidding. "Once we make your face look like ground hamburger, THEN you'll be beautiful."

Ugh.

And they ALWAYS have some snarky comment about the nose, and they give them all the same freaking nose. It's weird and gross.

[BrassFusion]

My mom watches those shows pretty often and I have to do the dishes or cook or do SOMETHING in the same part of the house where she's watching them. Sometimes I feel i'm going to have a heart attack or something, or just that my blood pressure is slowly crawling higher as i hear the shallow stupid people drone on and on... for everything I love about my mom, she has the WORST taste in media in general...

[DarkVampire]

If it's something that can be physically seen like limbs and other body parts, no. I was born with them, I will die with them. Internal organs, depends on the situation and the possible solutions.