De-constructive Surgery

There is a platitude that goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Well, what happens when it doesn't work anymore? I mean, the thing's not broke, it's just outdated, or it simply doesn't do the job anymore? If it's a computer you upgrade the system, right? You download a better program or you replace the operating system. In other words, you destroy or throw out the outdated "something" and replace it with whatever is more current, faster, more effective. Human psychology works the same way...or does it? If we need to re-educate or improve our skills we take courses, we get further our education. The brain intakes new and improved information to make us more current; we upgrade ourselves. But what happens when our bodies begin to breakdown? Something inside us isn't working the way it used to? Can we upgrade our bodies? Can we download a new program to erase the older function and improve the functionalism of the overall system?

After my hip replacement in 2001, the consensus was that I was getting a new and improved hip. In fact, what was at that time the weakest part of my overall body system was now the strongest. Hell, I had switched bone for titanium steel! But that wasn't my only problem. In fact, my spine had already begun degenerating...and there is no such thing as a titanium steel spine! There is no replacing human vertebrae. Shit...I had gone through all the trouble to upgrade my hip joint to have something irreplaceable fall apart! Moreover, the neuropathic pain which may or may not have existed prior to the hip replacement might was likely aggravated or was even created by the upgrade of my hip! What a fucking gip! Here I had gone to all the trouble of losing 100+ lbs. enduring six months of learning to walk again and regain strength in the affected leg only to end up where I am now: in worse fucking pain that anything I had ever experienced before!

Clearly the human body does not work like a machine...so there's go that euphemism. The fact is our bodies are an interconnected system wherein one part relies essentially on another to fully operate. Our DNA will do what they do no matter what physical part we replace. Additionally, our attempts to replace any given part might actually result in further destruction of another part or the overall physical system. I'm not going to say that what I'm experiencing now, the severe spinal problems and neuropathic pains, are a result of four major surgeries to the lower half of my body. In many cases, surgery actually corrects the problem and a person's quality of life does improve. However, in my case, I think it's the opposite. Don't' get me wrong, though, I probably would have ended up shit creek without a paddle a damn site earlier if I hadn't gotten the hip replacement. What I have come to realize is that if one part of you is falling part, you had damn better look at the other parts of your body, too, to make sure it isn't a larger problem.

After the MRI was taken on my spine in 2005, the orthopedic surgeon who had replaced my hip in 2001 was confused that this problem hadn't been spotted by him back when he diagnosed the osteonecrosis in 2000. In fact, he went into his own records to see if he could find any evidence that he and his people had looked at my spine to see if there was any problem with it prior to the hip replacement. He couldn't find any...because he hadn't done any MRI at my spine. So, the question arises, what might have happened if the orthopedic surgeon had MRI'd my spine back in 2000 along with my hip? Might that have changed my surgery? The fact that I had forgotten or mentally blocked out the diagnosis of the 1994 X-ray on my lumbar spine didn't help the fact that there was no reason for the orthopedic surgeon to double-check my spine. Regardless, I can't help but wonder if knowing my spine was messed up in 2000 might not have altered the results of my decision to have the operation.

There's a form you have sign before you have an operation, regardless of the severity. By signing it you absolve the surgeon, the anesthetist, and the hospital of any complications which might arise as a result of the surgery. In other words, if you kick the bucket or shit happens while your under the knife you can't sue anyone for it. Desperate and terrified by whatever the horrific thing that is happening to your body, you will sign any damn thing stuck in front of you! I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. Hell, the surgeons, doctors and institutions have to do it to protect themselves. The fact is that you are gased to the point of unconsciousness and your body is ripped apart and stuff sawed out and other, non-human stuff is put inside your body. What about this doesn't sound like it's going to cause complications?

The bottom line is that reconstructive surgery is an attempt by humans to not only reconstruct what nature (or God if you prefer) has spent millions of years to perfect through evolution (or creation if you prefer) but deconstruct in matter of 90 minutes and send back out into the world in the vain hope that the system that has been surgically mauled and repaired will function better than it did before. When you look at it that way it doesn't seem likely that any surgery will ever work. Hasn't anyone in the medical profession ever read Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein?" Look what happened to that poor bastard (the Creature I mean)! Man playing God collides with Man in desperation to end his suffering; the result: chance.

On the other hand, what makes humans uniquely human is the naive belief that humanity can through its own ignorance of how nature magically created who and what we are can somehow find a way to stop the inevitable, irresistible and irreconcilable force of destruction from doing its uncompassionate job of decay and death. Armed with the technology of medical science and incomplete knowledge of the "what" and "why" of human existence, we attempt to rectify what nature has deemed "right" for any given individual suffering from what humanity has deemed not normal. I guess from this point of view, we can keep hoping but should never expect that surgery will somehow correct what nature has decided is the way it should be.