I Had A Splenectomy At Age 17

In a t-bone car wreck, the arm rest of my Fiat Spyder busted my spleen. Those cramps they're talking about are not just your normal cramps. Your entire abdomen tigtens up to protect your internals from injury, I guess. It took three of those emergency guys to get my legs down.

This was back before so many people were into fitness, so when I was in the emergency room, and the doc was showing me to some interns, one of them remarked about the "curious striations" on my stomach. I didn't have much muscle back then, but I had hardly any body fat. She was talking about my six-pack!

The doc explained to her that some young men the stomach muscles are well-defined like that. But really, it was only because of the intense cramping.

The doc called in another group of interns to watch as he showed them a new technique he had just read about in the latest medical journal. He held the pages of it open so they could see.

Then with only a swabbing of topical anesthetic, he tried to punch this huge needle into my abdomen to find out if I was bleeding internally, this was the new technique. The needle was about as big around as a pencil but maybe two feet long, and with a plastic handle on one end.

The Doc tried twice to push it but it wouldn't go. He told my Dad he might ought to wait outside. Then he bore down on it with two hands and most of his upper body weight and it finally went in.

Some blood started coming out of the top, which he explained to his interns was a positive sign of internal bleeding. He was either pulling the thing in and out, or my breathing was making it feel that way. I tried to be polite and not interrupt his lecture, but after a while I asked him if he could remove the needle, and he said "Wha...? Oh, yes of course."

They split me open from my belly to my sternum because they have to pull a bunch of stuff out to get back to where the spleen is. And they put this drain tube in the side of my stomach, which really felt good when they pulled it out some days later. Now it looks like a gunshot wound.

I don't know if I've suffered any ill effects from it. They still aren't sure what if any ill effects people should have after a splenectomy.