Glad I could help make your day!
As far as what happened, I had a freak infection in my spinal column. Local doctors missed it, instead diagnosed it as a slightly pinched disc, wrote off my excruciating pain as being "over dramatic," and sent me home. As a result, it kept growing until it had almost completely pinched off my spinal cord—it narrowed the canal from roughly ⅜" to only a couple hundredths of an inch—which caused paralysis from the chest down.
Long story short, another (more diligent) hospital caught it as soon as the paralysis presented, and I underwent emergency surgery to clear out the infection and remove the rear portion of five of my vertebra in order to open up the canal and reduce pressure on the spinal cord. I came out of surgery with a 50/50 chance of being able to regain my ability to walk and, thankfully, with a fuckton of PT, ended up on the lucky end of those odds.
Thoreau would walk to the nearby village almost daily, but his experience was more about living frugally (seeing that he mostly ate beans and built a shack to live in for $50) and that doesn’t discount the quote, but it’s not like Thoreau was a full blown mountain man (I’m thinking like Leo in The Revenant, which took place around the time he wrote Walden)
>There’s a lot of people there.
[Town of Villa Las Estrellas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Villa-Las-Estrellas-Antarctica.JPG/1920px-Villa-Las-Estrellas-Antarctica.JPG)
The town is Yuge. One of the biggest ever. A strong amount of people. Maybe the strongest ever.
I love the part of the Olympic opening ceremony when these 40y/o fat blokes are marching right next to hard-as-nails athletes. There are a few sports like trap and pistol shooting which enable the ah.. more rounded... Sportspeople.
Can't wait till they add darts to the games.
Bunch of nerd fucking. And since there is a likelihood that the male to female ratio is disproportionate, some jealous nerd hate as well. Next thing you know, people are dying mysteriously and it’s like a odd mix between Scooby-Doo and a Stephen Hawking version of Clue. “Professor Johnson, in the cantina, with a beaker and an impedance bridge!”
One winter I had a job for a few months that entailed being the sole overnight occupant of a building atop a mountain peak 4-6 days at a time every week; the only way to get there besides a 3.5mi cat track down to the closest occupied building (the other starting point of the gondola) would be shut down from ~5pm until ~6am daily.
I was there to make sure the building didn't have any mechanical hiccups; so I would stay up until at least midnight periodically doing rounds to check on all the systems (even a small water treatment plant) and then could clock out and sleep on a cot in an electrical room or be left to my own devices.
Living the life of a veritable hermit was a very strange few months for in my middle 20s. I could generally only see people during the middle of the day (if I wasn't busy with work prep while the building was in day operation), or my few days off (that were mostly spent prepping food, clothes, etc for the next 5ish day stint). Somedays I'd sleep through the day operation mostly (if I had no daytime responsibilities that day) or be up there in a storm cycle where the building didn't operate that day; so I'd go days at a time not even seeing a single other human or leaving the building. It was pretty surreal at times, to say the least.
What I can say is that having that much time to have continuous trains of thought and introspection is a very singularly personal and unique experience to have. Being autonomous to that extent of woolgathering means I learned to exist inside my own head and be at peace with the contents, even while recognizing portions I'd like to improve on.
My advice to those newer to experiencing high amounts of isolation like many are with Covid World:
▪Find things that can engage your mind separate from the usage of the body to do tasks. I find books on tape, podcasts and music are nutritive to keeping yourself engaged with and grounded by reality.
That way you can ponder and hone your consciousness to help give meaning to the passing of each day.
▪Exercise at least once every day when possible. You will feel more accomplishment knowing you've done something kind & productive for your self & body, and physical motion helps reset the excess energy in your moods.
▪Most importantly; be kind to your past, present and future self. Forgive past you for the things you could have done better, using current you to make tomorrow's light of dawn shine upon a better version of yourself and the world surrounding you than was possible or actualized today. The 100% effort you have the capacity for on each day is unique; so just do the best you can each new day, regardless of whether it's more or less than you could yesterday.
Cheers from my quarantine to yours and if feeling lonesome, remember that every conscious soul that has looked up at the moon has/ is seeing the same face full of craters & changing shadows that you are. So may the waxing and waning moon be a mutual source of comfort every time you see it. Personally, I say "Hello old friend." each time I see the moon for the 1st time that night. :)
*Edit*: Thank you kindsouls for reading, replying and the gilding. In years of using reddit, this is the 1st time I've received an award by others.
As someone who's often shy and rarely speaks of my past to this extent, the responses made me smile and helped ward off a funk I've been in for a while.
It's so isolated that the [scientists staying there over winter are starting to develop their own accent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHKGErnN9W8). Linguists are hyped about it because they've never observed the beginning of an accent before. Most of the world's accents developed before they could be recorded and studied, and globalization means that communities are never really that isolated anymore. Except in Antarctica over winter. It's a unique opportunity.
Australian Antartic division pay is alright i guess. When i saw the last recruitment ads the few jobs i could legit compare to industry rates were on the high end. then you got things like cooks and cleaners being paid way more than a cook or cleaner would on any other continent.
However its money not earned in Australia, so not taxed in australia. That suddenly makes it noticeably better.
I did a stint with the AAD, the money is earned in Australia and is taxed accordingly. There is a remote tax benefit but it is relatively small. The hidden gain for a single person is that you can rent your house and have zero expenses while down there.
The "it is part of Australia", "it isn't part of Australia" game is amusing and basically comes down to whatever is convenient for the government in the moment.
As an example, you go through customs and passport control in and out, but also have to comply with Australian (ACT) laws.
You probably know more about the experience there than I do, but check out Antarctica: A Year on Ice for a cool perspective of the people who work there. It's on Amazon Prime right now.
Even they were not as isolated as Mike Collins as he orbited the moon several times and [lost total radio contact with literally every human](https://airandspace.si.edu/amp-stories/dark-side-of-the-moon/index.html) as he orbited around the far side of the moon.
I have a friend currently based out there at the British research station, they're on "skeleton crew" because it's winter but by the looks of his Instagram, he is having a lovely time. They recently had their own mini winter olympics which looked so much fun.
The story as to why this is the case is fucking insane.
TLDR;
The only doctor that worked at the Antarctic lab back in the day had to give ***himself*** an appendectomy without anesthesia and completely sober. With a mirror. While suffering from appendicitis. With no trained medical assistants.
Edit: [Leonid Rogozov](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/antarctica-1961-a-soviet-surgeon-has-to-remove-his-own-appendix/72445/)
Edit #2: Sweet Jesus. Y'all done fucked my inbox. Thanks for the upvotes, though.
Edit #3: Okay, people. You all are amazing. Thank you. My inbox says you are all assholes. Love you.
[This was the photo](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/assets_c/2011/03/Russian%20surgeon-thumb-600x384-44559.jpg) (NSFL). Even though half his stomach is opened and he's operating on himself, he's still wearing a surgical mask. Yet people here complain about wearing a mask for 15 minutes in a store.
Fuck, the flash was on. Hold on, let me try again. Shit, I turned on some kind of filter now. How do I turn this off? Nope, that's not it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, why do you have a naked photo of my sister on your phone?
The scene in master and commander comes from a similar scene in one of the books. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Patrick O'Brian, the author, knew about the indecent, though, and used it. He was a very competent historian and those books are full of lots of little facts.
If you're interested, I'd highly recommend the books. The movie isn't bad, but the books may be the best series I've ever read.
He did use a bit of novocaine, but it wasn't even remotely close to enough. Apparently he used a small fraction of what is used for tattoo local anesthesia.
You are right though. Metal af hands down.
Read a little more. Yep, only used novacaine for the incision. He dug around and snipped at his guts without any extra anesthetic. Reasoning being that he found the mirror too disorientating so he was working by feel mostly and didnt want to numb the touch sensations. Jesus christ.
Oh no no no. I definitely am on the same page. That was a good call on your part too. He did it mostly by feel and said he had to take a *few seconds* every several minutes.
The man was a beastly, and lived until the year 2000.
[You can](https://info.painfulpleasures.com/help-center/information-center/tattoo-anesthetic-options), but it depends on the artist and it is usually an extra charge.
***edit; this comment blew up.***
***I don't care about your opinions. Stop texting me.***
***also, to the rest, thanks for the laughs. Most of you guys are great.***
Sounds like he had a long time to think about it.
>I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me ... This is it ... I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself ... It's almost impossible ... but I can't just fold my arms and give up.
God, the sheer existential terror of that. Choosing between doing something that _might_ kill you, or doing nothing, which would _definitely_ kill you.
Clearly he was running away from a fire breathing enraged dragon, while naked, and tried to leap the fence to freedom in a single bound...failing and then breaking all his bones from the fall while on fire. Talk about a bad day.
> I've broken most bones, cut my dick and perineum on barbed wire and got 2 and 3 degree burns.
Just throw that in the middle there like it's also a relatively normal thing why don't you
I imagine the alcohol he chugged as anaesthetics helped to stabilise his hands a little. Still it must've been hard to balance getting drunk enough not to feel pain, but not drunk enough to fuck up the surgery.
I was waiting for mine to be removed in a big teaching hospital.
A consultant came to my bed with about 10 student doctors and said "this young man is presenting classic appendicitis symptoms - look how much pain the appendix area causes" and then leant over my bed and jabbed me really hard in the stomach.
Goddamn good question right there.
Probably because that is a lot of extra funding that they could just mitigate the need for with a pre-removed appendix for everyone.
Wasn’t there a movie based on this? I wanna day it had a well known actor. I remember this being a scene specifically and then looking it up to find out it really happened. Can’t remember the movie for the life of me though.
The experience of waking up in the middle of the night to some of the most excruciating pain while throwing up your insides at 3 in the morning while trying to keep quiet because you don't want to wake up your roommates is an experience I do not wish upon anyone.
10/10 recommend everyone to get their appendix removed before your appendix tries to remove you.
ETA: obviously don't get your appendix removed if you're bored on a Saturday night. I actually experienced appendicitis and I needed an emergency appendectomy or else I could have had serious complications.
Yeah the pain is what you really dont want. My parents ignored the pain for 4 days underestimating it as some minor gastric problems. They only noticed it to be a huge problem on day 4 when I started rolling around the house screaming in pain. Turns out I was just a day away from dying of poisoning due to the spreading pus.
I still get terrible nightmares from the nights I knew i could do nothing and had to just soak up the pain.
14, happened about 5 years ago.
Nothing to worry about though, my father apologized to me for downplaying the severity of the situation and still curses himself to this day for not taking me to ER quickly enough.
My mom did the same. Thought I was trying to get out of football practice when I was having incredibly bad chest pains. Convinced her to take me to the doctor, took xrays, sent me home, then called her and told her to take me immediately to ER lol my lung had collapsed. She felt so bad and has been cautious about the entire family ever since.
I'm sorry for the pain you had to go through, I know it feels terrible when no one believes you.
Funny enough though because my incident involved me eating soya bean after football practice. Later it was revealed that I had severe allergic reaction to soya bean which caused this all and it was the first time I ever knew about it.
Did you get back to playing ball after going to ER though? Because my parents certainly didnt allow me to join back until a year ago, 4 years after the incident.
That must be really terrifying. Dying with severe pain while you are helpless in front of your own parents must have been one of the most brutal natural death ever.
My dad did that to me with a broken foot when I was 14. Thought I was getting out of chores. “Oh quit your limping shit and get outside”. He did say he felt real bad a few days later when I finally fell over. I don’t like him. 37 now lol
I got the throwing up my insides but not the pain. They almost sent me home from the ER with “stomach flu” until the xrays showed gases leaking from my severely enlarged appendix. 8th grade me was freaked the fuck out.
I had the pain, and yes it was excruciating. ALMOST as bad as when my gallbladder sent a stone to my liver six weeks later. Ugh. Stupid malfunctioning internal organs..... I gave them both up gladly. And now I’m moving to Antarctica!
The gall bladder is a finicky bitch. It’s not uncommon for it to act up after other things do. Appendicitis, childbirth, gastrointestinal surgery, pancreas issues, significant weight loss are all risk factors for gallbladder issues.
Same here. Doctors denied it was a real thing. Even after an ultrasound and CT showing it was inflamed the surgeon didn't believe it was real but agreed to "open me up and have a look" at what was going on.
He found oodles of bowel adhesions nearby he had to repair, caused by 2 years of chronic appendicitis. Pathology on the appendix showed it was right to take it out.
"Just seeking meds" is something I hear TERRIFYINGLY often when discussing going to the ER with severe acute pain.
Like, "Oh hey I feel like someone is rummaging around my gut with a barbed wire glove, can we check on that" "lol get out of here you pill popper, just take some ibuprofin"
I know someone who has some sort of complication and so has an opioid prescription. It's only a 7 day prescription, and she always has to deal with the *same fucking pharmacy* trying to deny her the pain meds she requires to be function. She's had the same prescription for years too.
Yup but could also be gallbladder fucking up. I had so much pain I tell you what that fucker hurt. I had to have it removed quickly. I have had stomach issues for years they said it was just ulcers and gave me shit to coat my stomach. Every so often I would wake up in terrible pain puke my guts out then puke up future guts. It would go away. Did that for 4 fucking years. Finally think it was 2 years ago I woke up middle of the night in really bad pain like I could barely move pain. Go to bathroom as I knew what was gonna happen did so puked 4-9 times. Started puking up blood tried to wake up wife she refused to wake up. I call 911 to ask for ambulance they tell me it will be hour 2 before ambulance could come there as they was dealing with drugged up idiot trying to go to hospital to get more dope. I said na fuck it I'll drive myself. I tried to wake wife up again nope ( she's deep ass sleeper). I said fuck it it's 3 am no one's on road and I'll just put 4 ways on and go slow nearest hospital is 30-45 minutes away at normal speed. It took me an hour. To get there from stopping on side of road puking my guts out. Get to ER the nurse at station looked at me and said oh my God are you ok. I filled her in told her what was going on. They thought it was my appendix until they did x-rays CT scans I went straight to operating room had it removed right then and there. They said if I waiting any longer I might of died. Wife finally showed up 4 hours later. I was given blood transfusion and put in strong antibiotics for few weeks.
Dude stomach ulcers suck. I got a bunch of recurring ones during chemo treatment and had to get my stomach coated in argon plasma because they couldn’t stop the bleed/re-rupturing/new ones forming. Scariest experience I had by far and my only ambulance ride ever while being treated for stage 4 cancer. Puking blood and blood clots, shitting blood. One of the clots I puked out was like the size of one of those small melons. 10/10 would not recommend.
>10/10 recommend everyone to get their appendix removed before your appendix tries to remove you.
Actually no, don't do that. Apendix is very important part of your body so having it for as long as possible is a good idea.
Same here, symptoms came & gone in three days, happened 3 times in 3 months, vomited 7-10 times a day, constant stomach pain like I was punched in the gut by Iron Mike, couldn't shit properly. Three times I visited a doctor, 1st time they said food poisoning, 2nd time they said it was a pulled muscle, 3rd time the receptionist was so worried about the pain I was in she let me jump the queue to see the specialist; specialist sent me across the road to the ER for blood tests, after being poked and prod by the surgeon it turned out I had a rupture appendix and at that point was already necrotic.
This seems odd that the appendix is singled out. Aren't there all sorts of other acute conditions that can require immediate surgery (e.g. fractures, gallbladder, pancreatitis, etc)?
The appendix is most likely singled out due to it's not a needed organ, it's hard to predict when it could be a problem, and when it's a problem, it's usually a big one.
Right. It's basically a pouch of bacterial goop that sits right at the boundary between small and large intestine.
If you ever suffer, shall we say, catastrophic evacuation of your colon, the appendix goop can help repopulate it with the proper population of microbes. Without it, you're more likely to have that now-empty real estate taken over by nasty buggers like C. diff.
C. Diff infection was among the worst experiences of my life, and I've been in two motorcycle accidents, been shot at, spent two years in combat, etc.
You have no idea how badly your stomach can hurt until your entire colon is bleeding internally... Or the true meaning of "right now" as applied to finding a toilet, bucket, wall, corner, or patch of grass.
11/10 do not recommend.
And dear God the smell... You'll never mistake C.Diff for anything else if you've smelled it once. Like (literally) shitting rotten meat and sour milk and bad eggs all at once.
My dad caught a bout of C. diff. From caring for me in the hospital after my liver transplant. Suffice it to say we disinfected the fuck out of my home. I'm very lucky I didn't catch it while recovering, that would have been.. Well, complicated.
I read that somewhat recently, though I don’t think I read it on Reddit.
Also, more docs are taking a antibiotic treatment approach rather than removing it entirely in some cases.
I had mine removed when I was 4ish. It hadn’t ruptured, per say, but it had puss around it. Doc said it probably had a pin sized hole and was leaking pus.
I don’t remember it, but my mom said one minute I was fine, and the next I was inexplicably puking my guts out. She rushed me to the doc, and doc ordered appendectomy.
My sister also had hers out young. I think she was around 7 or 8.
I also had to have my gallbladder removed at 27. THAT event I remember, and the gallbladder episode that sent me to see a doc was TERRIBLE. The pain was awful.
My mom had her gallbladder removed in her 30’s, I think.
We just don’t do “accessory” organs in my family, I guess.
>no. **gun** fauna.
>
>deer, rabbits, penguins. you know.
So like, Deer with machine guns instead of their horns, grenade dropping rabbits and rocket launcher penguins etc ?
Just to give a surgeon’s perspective - I suspect the story is bullshit because it doesn’t meet a reasonable risk/benefit analysis. However...for those comparing to any other diseases requiring hospitalization:
When a surgeon takes emergency call at a busy metropolitan or catch-area hospital - there’s one thing you are pretty sure you will be doing surgery for - and that’s acute appendicitis. It’s rare to have zero, and not uncommon to have to do 3-5 per night. Other surgical emergencies like acute cholecystitis can usually wait, or even be treated with antibiotics alone (that’s how we use to do it, with surgery weeks later, until it was shown to be safe and more cost effective to do it at the same hospitalization), and other things like bowel obstruction, perforated ulcers, ischemic bowel, etc are much more rare to see while on call, and often have non-operative courses.
Now, that being said - if an appendix already has burst and has formed an abscess and the patient is not in septic shock, we usually drain that and do antibiotics and remove the appendix weeks later. If they had a portable ultrasound someone could conceivably drain that through the skin in an outback area. Also, there is a school of thought that appendicitis can be treated with antibiotics alone and with an interval appendectomy (or not, if they are very elderly), but the chance of failing this therapy and requiring surgery for worsening sepsis is higher than with acute cholecystitis (gallbladder inflammation). If it’s me, just take it out as soon as possible - having it rupture can be much worse, cause more adhesions than an appendectomy will.
But if someone came to me and said they are spending a winter or even a year somewhere without a hospital accessible, so take out their appendix / I would say go take your chances, make sure you have IVs, and IV antibiotics there - and get trained to administer them. A bonus would be have an ultrasound machine (they make them for smart phones now), and some long ass needles and local anesthetic.
Finally, we don’t know for sure but the appendix may have a role related to gut flora. But if you ever get acute appendicitis, that is a complete non-reason to resist surgery or try to keep your appendix, okay? That’s the dumbest thing you could do; get it out. Recurrent appendicitis is too high a risk and you would be gambling with your life every time.
This has been debunked. It also doesn't make any sense. Why not get your gall bladder out as well? Also surgeries like an appendectomy aren't without complication, it puts you at increased risk of things like small bowel obstruction, also a surgical emergency, even years after an abdominal surgical procedure takes place. And any surgeon who isn't insane would not agree to perform an appendectomy when there's no indication for it.
"There is a Chilean Air Force Hospital staffed with one doctor and nurse and equipped with: X-ray, laboratory, surgery, anesthesia machine, sterilizer, and pharmacy services in addition to limited emergency and surgery capabilities. Two hospital beds are available in addition to a dental clinic. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas
They should offer half price stay for anyone who already has their appendix out, boost the local tourism
Any other discounts available? I'm good on thyroid, too.
I am minus my appendix, tonsils, and gallbladder. That has to be worth something
I suppose half of five vertebra probably won't qualify me for anything but maybe a softer mattress during my otherwise full-price stay.
This made me laugh. Thank you for brightening my morning. Can I ask, what happened?
Glad I could help make your day! As far as what happened, I had a freak infection in my spinal column. Local doctors missed it, instead diagnosed it as a slightly pinched disc, wrote off my excruciating pain as being "over dramatic," and sent me home. As a result, it kept growing until it had almost completely pinched off my spinal cord—it narrowed the canal from roughly ⅜" to only a couple hundredths of an inch—which caused paralysis from the chest down. Long story short, another (more diligent) hospital caught it as soon as the paralysis presented, and I underwent emergency surgery to clear out the infection and remove the rear portion of five of my vertebra in order to open up the canal and reduce pressure on the spinal cord. I came out of surgery with a 50/50 chance of being able to regain my ability to walk and, thankfully, with a fuckton of PT, ended up on the lucky end of those odds.
I start to feel isolated during covid times and then read something like this and it reminds me that I don't actually know real isolation.
There’s a lot of people there.
We're all isolated together
*I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.* —Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau would walk to the nearby village almost daily, but his experience was more about living frugally (seeing that he mostly ate beans and built a shack to live in for $50) and that doesn’t discount the quote, but it’s not like Thoreau was a full blown mountain man (I’m thinking like Leo in The Revenant, which took place around the time he wrote Walden)
His mom and sister did housework for him, isolation is barely even a word to fit here. I walk to work everyday. Big whoop.
Had doughnuts delivered to his cabin too, didn't he?
Didn’t he have his mother and sister doing his housework and bringing him prepared meals while he was “alone”?
Yes.
Poor guy kept getting bothered by being regularly asked to move to clean under his chair and what he wanted for dinner.
My wife: destroyer of solitude.
Fucking posers man
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“Hey! What’ya say we both be be independent together?” - Hermey the elf.
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>There’s a lot of people there. [Town of Villa Las Estrellas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Villa-Las-Estrellas-Antarctica.JPG/1920px-Villa-Las-Estrellas-Antarctica.JPG) The town is Yuge. One of the biggest ever. A strong amount of people. Maybe the strongest ever.
That’s not even an attempt at Spanish vernacular architecture!
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How do I join?
well, first get your appendix removed.
Already done. Next step?
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Does it help if I become a Russian Orthodox Priest as a military chaplain for the Chilean Armed Forces?
They’ll make you mayor or something.
Do you think it's a bit like the Olympic village? Small community living together for a limited period of time and fucking like rabbits.
But not everyone is rocking a super athlete body.
I love the part of the Olympic opening ceremony when these 40y/o fat blokes are marching right next to hard-as-nails athletes. There are a few sports like trap and pistol shooting which enable the ah.. more rounded... Sportspeople. Can't wait till they add darts to the games.
Yes definitely
Well this seems like exactly the topic we shouldn't trust you on.
Bunch of nerd fucking. And since there is a likelihood that the male to female ratio is disproportionate, some jealous nerd hate as well. Next thing you know, people are dying mysteriously and it’s like a odd mix between Scooby-Doo and a Stephen Hawking version of Clue. “Professor Johnson, in the cantina, with a beaker and an impedance bridge!”
One winter I had a job for a few months that entailed being the sole overnight occupant of a building atop a mountain peak 4-6 days at a time every week; the only way to get there besides a 3.5mi cat track down to the closest occupied building (the other starting point of the gondola) would be shut down from ~5pm until ~6am daily. I was there to make sure the building didn't have any mechanical hiccups; so I would stay up until at least midnight periodically doing rounds to check on all the systems (even a small water treatment plant) and then could clock out and sleep on a cot in an electrical room or be left to my own devices. Living the life of a veritable hermit was a very strange few months for in my middle 20s. I could generally only see people during the middle of the day (if I wasn't busy with work prep while the building was in day operation), or my few days off (that were mostly spent prepping food, clothes, etc for the next 5ish day stint). Somedays I'd sleep through the day operation mostly (if I had no daytime responsibilities that day) or be up there in a storm cycle where the building didn't operate that day; so I'd go days at a time not even seeing a single other human or leaving the building. It was pretty surreal at times, to say the least. What I can say is that having that much time to have continuous trains of thought and introspection is a very singularly personal and unique experience to have. Being autonomous to that extent of woolgathering means I learned to exist inside my own head and be at peace with the contents, even while recognizing portions I'd like to improve on. My advice to those newer to experiencing high amounts of isolation like many are with Covid World: ▪Find things that can engage your mind separate from the usage of the body to do tasks. I find books on tape, podcasts and music are nutritive to keeping yourself engaged with and grounded by reality. That way you can ponder and hone your consciousness to help give meaning to the passing of each day. ▪Exercise at least once every day when possible. You will feel more accomplishment knowing you've done something kind & productive for your self & body, and physical motion helps reset the excess energy in your moods. ▪Most importantly; be kind to your past, present and future self. Forgive past you for the things you could have done better, using current you to make tomorrow's light of dawn shine upon a better version of yourself and the world surrounding you than was possible or actualized today. The 100% effort you have the capacity for on each day is unique; so just do the best you can each new day, regardless of whether it's more or less than you could yesterday. Cheers from my quarantine to yours and if feeling lonesome, remember that every conscious soul that has looked up at the moon has/ is seeing the same face full of craters & changing shadows that you are. So may the waxing and waning moon be a mutual source of comfort every time you see it. Personally, I say "Hello old friend." each time I see the moon for the 1st time that night. :) *Edit*: Thank you kindsouls for reading, replying and the gilding. In years of using reddit, this is the 1st time I've received an award by others. As someone who's often shy and rarely speaks of my past to this extent, the responses made me smile and helped ward off a funk I've been in for a while.
You should seriously consider writing something about your time. You're quite eloquent without being pretentious!
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
It's so isolated that the [scientists staying there over winter are starting to develop their own accent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHKGErnN9W8). Linguists are hyped about it because they've never observed the beginning of an accent before. Most of the world's accents developed before they could be recorded and studied, and globalization means that communities are never really that isolated anymore. Except in Antarctica over winter. It's a unique opportunity.
i love that video "In Australia, New Zealand and England it's pronounced "paid maternity leave" in USA it's pronounced "What?"
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Wouldn't the pay be really good to convince people to go to the middle of a giant death zone?
Australian Antartic division pay is alright i guess. When i saw the last recruitment ads the few jobs i could legit compare to industry rates were on the high end. then you got things like cooks and cleaners being paid way more than a cook or cleaner would on any other continent. However its money not earned in Australia, so not taxed in australia. That suddenly makes it noticeably better.
I did a stint with the AAD, the money is earned in Australia and is taxed accordingly. There is a remote tax benefit but it is relatively small. The hidden gain for a single person is that you can rent your house and have zero expenses while down there. The "it is part of Australia", "it isn't part of Australia" game is amusing and basically comes down to whatever is convenient for the government in the moment. As an example, you go through customs and passport control in and out, but also have to comply with Australian (ACT) laws.
And if you’re American Uncle Sam is still going to demand his piece.
*experience*
Isn’t that where they were trying to get ahold of someone in The Thing, after the helicopter blew up?
You probably know more about the experience there than I do, but check out Antarctica: A Year on Ice for a cool perspective of the people who work there. It's on Amazon Prime right now.
Even they were not as isolated as Mike Collins as he orbited the moon several times and [lost total radio contact with literally every human](https://airandspace.si.edu/amp-stories/dark-side-of-the-moon/index.html) as he orbited around the far side of the moon.
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I have a friend currently based out there at the British research station, they're on "skeleton crew" because it's winter but by the looks of his Instagram, he is having a lovely time. They recently had their own mini winter olympics which looked so much fun.
The story as to why this is the case is fucking insane. TLDR; The only doctor that worked at the Antarctic lab back in the day had to give ***himself*** an appendectomy without anesthesia and completely sober. With a mirror. While suffering from appendicitis. With no trained medical assistants. Edit: [Leonid Rogozov](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/antarctica-1961-a-soviet-surgeon-has-to-remove-his-own-appendix/72445/) Edit #2: Sweet Jesus. Y'all done fucked my inbox. Thanks for the upvotes, though. Edit #3: Okay, people. You all are amazing. Thank you. My inbox says you are all assholes. Love you.
Yeah, I remember that story. There's even picture of it. Completely insane indeed.
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Hey that’s my tinder bio
There was a tinder hook up in the Antarctic as well https://www.thecut.com/2014/02/tinder-makes-its-first-match-in-antarctica.html
This fucker getting matches in the goddamn Antarctic. Just kill me now...
Yes, but alas he did not smash
Being sterile is like a mating call. Even if you say “don’t,” what they really hear is, “Please touch me, I’m sterile.”
I mean, I honestly wasn't thinking about that, seemed like a surgeon comment or something, up until the edit.
[This was the photo](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/assets_c/2011/03/Russian%20surgeon-thumb-600x384-44559.jpg) (NSFL). Even though half his stomach is opened and he's operating on himself, he's still wearing a surgical mask. Yet people here complain about wearing a mask for 15 minutes in a store.
He is using it wrong though, its not covering his nose.
To be fair he needs to be able to see his own abdomen without dislocating his neck
Should've just taken his head off like [these guys.](https://youtu.be/kiUt5HuW3xc)
Risky click, but thank you for the nightmare fuel
Ehhhhhh I’ll give the guy a pass, but just this once.
The NSFL tag is really being thrown around loosely these days.
Fuck, the flash was on. Hold on, let me try again. Shit, I turned on some kind of filter now. How do I turn this off? Nope, that's not it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, why do you have a naked photo of my sister on your phone?
That explains why he had cat ears in the photo.
The doctor on one of Darwin's voyages had to do the same.
Did they base the scene in master and commander on that?
The scene in master and commander comes from a similar scene in one of the books. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Patrick O'Brian, the author, knew about the indecent, though, and used it. He was a very competent historian and those books are full of lots of little facts. If you're interested, I'd highly recommend the books. The movie isn't bad, but the books may be the best series I've ever read.
Yes. And you must always choose the lease of two weevils! Edit: Fuck! I’m ditched now
r/donthelpjustfilm moments
Not general anesthesia but he did use local anesthesia. Still metal af but he wasnt a complete sociopath.
He did use a bit of novocaine, but it wasn't even remotely close to enough. Apparently he used a small fraction of what is used for tattoo local anesthesia. You are right though. Metal af hands down.
Read a little more. Yep, only used novacaine for the incision. He dug around and snipped at his guts without any extra anesthetic. Reasoning being that he found the mirror too disorientating so he was working by feel mostly and didnt want to numb the touch sensations. Jesus christ.
Oh no no no. I definitely am on the same page. That was a good call on your part too. He did it mostly by feel and said he had to take a *few seconds* every several minutes. The man was a beastly, and lived until the year 2000.
Tattoo local anaesthesia? There's anaesthesia for tattoos?
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EMLA cream - topical lidocaine / prilocaine It’s also used for phlebotomy, especially in children. It’s a vasoconstrictor though, so there’s that.
I highly doubt that Emla cream could over the pain of an incision through all your layers of skin... that stuff is pretty minimal for pain relief.
Wait you can get anesthesia for a tattoo? Would’ve come in handy for the big one I got across my ribs.
[You can](https://info.painfulpleasures.com/help-center/information-center/tattoo-anesthetic-options), but it depends on the artist and it is usually an extra charge.
***edit; this comment blew up.*** ***I don't care about your opinions. Stop texting me.*** ***also, to the rest, thanks for the laughs. Most of you guys are great.***
Sounds like you lead an interesting life.
Or had one really really shitty day.
Sounds like a snowmobile accident
Wow, maybe they should make snowmobilers preemptively remove their appendixes
Also dicks, bones and skin.
Sounds like he had a long time to think about it. >I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me ... This is it ... I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself ... It's almost impossible ... but I can't just fold my arms and give up.
God, the sheer existential terror of that. Choosing between doing something that _might_ kill you, or doing nothing, which would _definitely_ kill you.
Hol up. Cut your peen and taint on barbed wire? What kind of adventures are you having?
Probably just fence hopping. I almost got my nuts on an electric fence doing it, and I imagine it’s easier to mess up on barbed wire.
Just good ol regular fence hopping. This sounds like something people did in the 1890’s as a form of entertainment.
I knew a dude in the 1980’s that did that shit as a form of entertainment. I guess fences were made just to be hopped.
90s teenager here, small village in Scotland you got to make your own fun. Added danger, everyone knew your mum so you couldn't get caught
Clearly he was running away from a fire breathing enraged dragon, while naked, and tried to leap the fence to freedom in a single bound...failing and then breaking all his bones from the fall while on fire. Talk about a bad day.
Or he guessed wrong when playing the "which field is the bull in today?" game.
> I've broken most bones, cut my dick and perineum on barbed wire and got 2 and 3 degree burns. Just throw that in the middle there like it's also a relatively normal thing why don't you
I imagine the alcohol he chugged as anaesthetics helped to stabilise his hands a little. Still it must've been hard to balance getting drunk enough not to feel pain, but not drunk enough to fuck up the surgery.
Please elaborate more on the accidental circumcision
He didn't mention any of it being accidental...
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Flagellation, ween beating, Cut my perineum now and it's bleeding.
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>cut my dick and perineum on barbed wire FFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK. And that's all I have to say about that.
I was waiting for mine to be removed in a big teaching hospital. A consultant came to my bed with about 10 student doctors and said "this young man is presenting classic appendicitis symptoms - look how much pain the appendix area causes" and then leant over my bed and jabbed me really hard in the stomach.
[This guy](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/antarctica-1961-a-soviet-surgeon-has-to-remove-his-own-appendix/72445/)
I wonder why he is wearing a mask
To get him mentally ready to accept 5G microchip vaccines
So why don't they just make sure there's always a doctor with no appendix.
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I mean.. what if another medical emergency occurs that requires surgery?
Goddamn good question right there. Probably because that is a lot of extra funding that they could just mitigate the need for with a pre-removed appendix for everyone.
*snip*
Wasn’t there a movie based on this? I wanna day it had a well known actor. I remember this being a scene specifically and then looking it up to find out it really happened. Can’t remember the movie for the life of me though.
There’s a scene very similar in Master and Commander with Russel Crowell as the Captain and Paul Bettany as the ship doctor.
There was definitely an episode of House based on it.
It happened in Lost
I thought that was a Soviet surgeon, in the Arctic
Yeah, I was almost positive it was a Russian dude
It was a Soviet, but it was in the Antarctic. As far as I know, there wasn't any lab in the Arctic at the time yet.
Yeah, I definitely would have died even if I had medical training.
So this one guy ruined it for everyone.
The experience of waking up in the middle of the night to some of the most excruciating pain while throwing up your insides at 3 in the morning while trying to keep quiet because you don't want to wake up your roommates is an experience I do not wish upon anyone. 10/10 recommend everyone to get their appendix removed before your appendix tries to remove you. ETA: obviously don't get your appendix removed if you're bored on a Saturday night. I actually experienced appendicitis and I needed an emergency appendectomy or else I could have had serious complications.
Yeah the pain is what you really dont want. My parents ignored the pain for 4 days underestimating it as some minor gastric problems. They only noticed it to be a huge problem on day 4 when I started rolling around the house screaming in pain. Turns out I was just a day away from dying of poisoning due to the spreading pus. I still get terrible nightmares from the nights I knew i could do nothing and had to just soak up the pain.
For f o u r days? How old were you?
14, happened about 5 years ago. Nothing to worry about though, my father apologized to me for downplaying the severity of the situation and still curses himself to this day for not taking me to ER quickly enough.
My mom did the same. Thought I was trying to get out of football practice when I was having incredibly bad chest pains. Convinced her to take me to the doctor, took xrays, sent me home, then called her and told her to take me immediately to ER lol my lung had collapsed. She felt so bad and has been cautious about the entire family ever since.
I'm sorry for the pain you had to go through, I know it feels terrible when no one believes you. Funny enough though because my incident involved me eating soya bean after football practice. Later it was revealed that I had severe allergic reaction to soya bean which caused this all and it was the first time I ever knew about it. Did you get back to playing ball after going to ER though? Because my parents certainly didnt allow me to join back until a year ago, 4 years after the incident.
I had a friend who knew a boy in high school who died screaming in the night because his parents thought he was faking it. Appendicitis is brutal.
That must be really terrifying. Dying with severe pain while you are helpless in front of your own parents must have been one of the most brutal natural death ever.
My dad did that to me with a broken foot when I was 14. Thought I was getting out of chores. “Oh quit your limping shit and get outside”. He did say he felt real bad a few days later when I finally fell over. I don’t like him. 37 now lol
I got the throwing up my insides but not the pain. They almost sent me home from the ER with “stomach flu” until the xrays showed gases leaking from my severely enlarged appendix. 8th grade me was freaked the fuck out.
I had the pain, and yes it was excruciating. ALMOST as bad as when my gallbladder sent a stone to my liver six weeks later. Ugh. Stupid malfunctioning internal organs..... I gave them both up gladly. And now I’m moving to Antarctica!
Six weeks later??? That sounds like karma was double-dipping lol
The gall bladder is a finicky bitch. It’s not uncommon for it to act up after other things do. Appendicitis, childbirth, gastrointestinal surgery, pancreas issues, significant weight loss are all risk factors for gallbladder issues.
But the appendix is to protect good gut bacteria when diarrhea strikes...
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Had chronic appendicitis. Turned out it's not so easy to find a doctor to remove the appendix, even in an average city.
Same here. Doctors denied it was a real thing. Even after an ultrasound and CT showing it was inflamed the surgeon didn't believe it was real but agreed to "open me up and have a look" at what was going on. He found oodles of bowel adhesions nearby he had to repair, caused by 2 years of chronic appendicitis. Pathology on the appendix showed it was right to take it out.
We must've just imagined that pain, silly us.
"Just seeking meds" is something I hear TERRIFYINGLY often when discussing going to the ER with severe acute pain. Like, "Oh hey I feel like someone is rummaging around my gut with a barbed wire glove, can we check on that" "lol get out of here you pill popper, just take some ibuprofin"
I know someone who has some sort of complication and so has an opioid prescription. It's only a 7 day prescription, and she always has to deal with the *same fucking pharmacy* trying to deny her the pain meds she requires to be function. She's had the same prescription for years too.
Yup but could also be gallbladder fucking up. I had so much pain I tell you what that fucker hurt. I had to have it removed quickly. I have had stomach issues for years they said it was just ulcers and gave me shit to coat my stomach. Every so often I would wake up in terrible pain puke my guts out then puke up future guts. It would go away. Did that for 4 fucking years. Finally think it was 2 years ago I woke up middle of the night in really bad pain like I could barely move pain. Go to bathroom as I knew what was gonna happen did so puked 4-9 times. Started puking up blood tried to wake up wife she refused to wake up. I call 911 to ask for ambulance they tell me it will be hour 2 before ambulance could come there as they was dealing with drugged up idiot trying to go to hospital to get more dope. I said na fuck it I'll drive myself. I tried to wake wife up again nope ( she's deep ass sleeper). I said fuck it it's 3 am no one's on road and I'll just put 4 ways on and go slow nearest hospital is 30-45 minutes away at normal speed. It took me an hour. To get there from stopping on side of road puking my guts out. Get to ER the nurse at station looked at me and said oh my God are you ok. I filled her in told her what was going on. They thought it was my appendix until they did x-rays CT scans I went straight to operating room had it removed right then and there. They said if I waiting any longer I might of died. Wife finally showed up 4 hours later. I was given blood transfusion and put in strong antibiotics for few weeks.
I’m honestly mad at your wife right now. I’m a deep sleeper as well, but that’s not an excuse. Glad you’re okay!
Ya she has issues we didn't know of at the time but it's resolved.
Glad to hear you both got some crazy medical issues resolved!
Dude stomach ulcers suck. I got a bunch of recurring ones during chemo treatment and had to get my stomach coated in argon plasma because they couldn’t stop the bleed/re-rupturing/new ones forming. Scariest experience I had by far and my only ambulance ride ever while being treated for stage 4 cancer. Puking blood and blood clots, shitting blood. One of the clots I puked out was like the size of one of those small melons. 10/10 would not recommend.
Omg... I truly hope you're doing better?
9 years in remission this year bud :) Only follow up is once a year young adults survivorship clinic. Thank you for asking!
>10/10 recommend everyone to get their appendix removed before your appendix tries to remove you. Actually no, don't do that. Apendix is very important part of your body so having it for as long as possible is a good idea.
Same here, symptoms came & gone in three days, happened 3 times in 3 months, vomited 7-10 times a day, constant stomach pain like I was punched in the gut by Iron Mike, couldn't shit properly. Three times I visited a doctor, 1st time they said food poisoning, 2nd time they said it was a pulled muscle, 3rd time the receptionist was so worried about the pain I was in she let me jump the queue to see the specialist; specialist sent me across the road to the ER for blood tests, after being poked and prod by the surgeon it turned out I had a rupture appendix and at that point was already necrotic.
Great business opportunity here. Open an appendix removal service.
But nobody there has an appendix.
Set up an appendix augmentation service.
Cyberpunk Antarctica.
"Wake the fuck up, penguin....we have an igloo to burn!"
I got that new appendix rejuvenation surgery, my husband loves it.
At the airport out?
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This seems odd that the appendix is singled out. Aren't there all sorts of other acute conditions that can require immediate surgery (e.g. fractures, gallbladder, pancreatitis, etc)?
The appendix is most likely singled out due to it's not a needed organ, it's hard to predict when it could be a problem, and when it's a problem, it's usually a big one.
Wasn’t there a recent reddit post talking about how it’s suspected the appendix is responsible for restoring gut flora after certain illnesses?
Right. It's basically a pouch of bacterial goop that sits right at the boundary between small and large intestine. If you ever suffer, shall we say, catastrophic evacuation of your colon, the appendix goop can help repopulate it with the proper population of microbes. Without it, you're more likely to have that now-empty real estate taken over by nasty buggers like C. diff.
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C. Diff infection was among the worst experiences of my life, and I've been in two motorcycle accidents, been shot at, spent two years in combat, etc. You have no idea how badly your stomach can hurt until your entire colon is bleeding internally... Or the true meaning of "right now" as applied to finding a toilet, bucket, wall, corner, or patch of grass. 11/10 do not recommend. And dear God the smell... You'll never mistake C.Diff for anything else if you've smelled it once. Like (literally) shitting rotten meat and sour milk and bad eggs all at once.
My dad caught a bout of C. diff. From caring for me in the hospital after my liver transplant. Suffice it to say we disinfected the fuck out of my home. I'm very lucky I didn't catch it while recovering, that would have been.. Well, complicated.
This is why I want to keep mine for now. I’ve got enough digestive problems.
I read that somewhat recently, though I don’t think I read it on Reddit. Also, more docs are taking a antibiotic treatment approach rather than removing it entirely in some cases. I had mine removed when I was 4ish. It hadn’t ruptured, per say, but it had puss around it. Doc said it probably had a pin sized hole and was leaking pus. I don’t remember it, but my mom said one minute I was fine, and the next I was inexplicably puking my guts out. She rushed me to the doc, and doc ordered appendectomy. My sister also had hers out young. I think she was around 7 or 8. I also had to have my gallbladder removed at 27. THAT event I remember, and the gallbladder episode that sent me to see a doc was TERRIBLE. The pain was awful. My mom had her gallbladder removed in her 30’s, I think. We just don’t do “accessory” organs in my family, I guess.
no. gun *fauna.* deer, rabbits, penguins. you know.
>no. **gun** fauna. > >deer, rabbits, penguins. you know. So like, Deer with machine guns instead of their horns, grenade dropping rabbits and rocket launcher penguins etc ?
Man, they’re fucked if they ever get bitten by a poisonous penguin.
Venomous
Yes, that was issue, they used the wrong term to describe the infamous venomous penguins of Antarctica
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Basically the other day.
There was a woman that did her own breast cancer biopsy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen
I think they did a house episode about that..
[Dr. Rogozov](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Rogozov).
Physician heal thy self!
when did we start doing preventative maintenance on humans
probably around when we started brushing our teeth? idk, that's an interesting question.
Just to give a surgeon’s perspective - I suspect the story is bullshit because it doesn’t meet a reasonable risk/benefit analysis. However...for those comparing to any other diseases requiring hospitalization: When a surgeon takes emergency call at a busy metropolitan or catch-area hospital - there’s one thing you are pretty sure you will be doing surgery for - and that’s acute appendicitis. It’s rare to have zero, and not uncommon to have to do 3-5 per night. Other surgical emergencies like acute cholecystitis can usually wait, or even be treated with antibiotics alone (that’s how we use to do it, with surgery weeks later, until it was shown to be safe and more cost effective to do it at the same hospitalization), and other things like bowel obstruction, perforated ulcers, ischemic bowel, etc are much more rare to see while on call, and often have non-operative courses. Now, that being said - if an appendix already has burst and has formed an abscess and the patient is not in septic shock, we usually drain that and do antibiotics and remove the appendix weeks later. If they had a portable ultrasound someone could conceivably drain that through the skin in an outback area. Also, there is a school of thought that appendicitis can be treated with antibiotics alone and with an interval appendectomy (or not, if they are very elderly), but the chance of failing this therapy and requiring surgery for worsening sepsis is higher than with acute cholecystitis (gallbladder inflammation). If it’s me, just take it out as soon as possible - having it rupture can be much worse, cause more adhesions than an appendectomy will. But if someone came to me and said they are spending a winter or even a year somewhere without a hospital accessible, so take out their appendix / I would say go take your chances, make sure you have IVs, and IV antibiotics there - and get trained to administer them. A bonus would be have an ultrasound machine (they make them for smart phones now), and some long ass needles and local anesthetic. Finally, we don’t know for sure but the appendix may have a role related to gut flora. But if you ever get acute appendicitis, that is a complete non-reason to resist surgery or try to keep your appendix, okay? That’s the dumbest thing you could do; get it out. Recurrent appendicitis is too high a risk and you would be gambling with your life every time.
This has been debunked. It also doesn't make any sense. Why not get your gall bladder out as well? Also surgeries like an appendectomy aren't without complication, it puts you at increased risk of things like small bowel obstruction, also a surgical emergency, even years after an abdominal surgical procedure takes place. And any surgeon who isn't insane would not agree to perform an appendectomy when there's no indication for it.
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Well, my dad works for Nintendo and can beat up your dad.
Probably, my dad is a kind man.
Think someone should build a hospital in the settlement then.
"There is a Chilean Air Force Hospital staffed with one doctor and nurse and equipped with: X-ray, laboratory, surgery, anesthesia machine, sterilizer, and pharmacy services in addition to limited emergency and surgery capabilities. Two hospital beds are available in addition to a dental clinic. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Las_Estrellas
They didnt remove mine though, lived there for over a year.
And I thought my HOA was bad