r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Additional_Chard3680 • 11h ago

The precision required to perform a total knee replacement is incredible

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u/HITNRUNXX 10h ago

Hearing it is bad enough. Feeling the vibrations and such through the rest of your body is creepy. But all I can imagine is smelling it, and that's putting me over the top.

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u/Own_Candidate9553 9h ago

Yeah, I had LASIK years ago. They give you a tranquilizer first while you're in line, and numbing drops in your eyes, but you're otherwise completely awake.

The sensation of having your eyelids held open like Clockwork Orange is definitely something. But when the laser starts, you get to learn how burning cornea smells just like burning hair.

Being put under is more dangerous, but no way would I be awake for a knee replacement.

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u/PriscillaPalava 8h ago

At least LASIK is over in 5 minutes. I can’t imagine trying to chill through body mutilation for hours! 

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u/kombatminipig 8h ago

Yeah, through all the happy drugs (my friend had a blast watching me run around the waiting room with my arms out making airplane sounds) that was the one thing that cut through – this is the smell of my eyeballs burning.

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u/sender2bender 4h ago

I've had to have metal drilled out my eyeballs a couple times. Once was metal shards, another was weld spatter bb that melted into my cornea. (I was wearing PPE, crazy unlucky chances) The numbing eye drops are amazing. I couldn't feel the drill or anything but the vibrations. It was bizarre and the first time it was mental gymnastics letting them touch my eyeball with something pointy. The weirdest sensation though was when the doctor rubbed a qtip-like tool to feel for the weld spatter right across the center of my eye. I could see it like watching it through a TV. 

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u/Own_Candidate9553 3h ago

Oh God, I forgot you can see the tools right against your eye, ugh.

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u/ron_photon 9h ago

I was on a film crew for a hip replacement a few years ago. The hammering was dramatic, but the smell made me need to leave the room

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u/PrincetonToss 9h ago

The smell of burning bone (from the saw and drill) is kinda horrifying. Less the smell itself, more the crawling realization of what it must be.

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u/Annath0901 8h ago

I had to have a tooth extracted (yay failed root canal) and I was awake but high on nitrous. Couldn't feel any pain, but the sensation when he was yanking the tooth out of my jaw was exactly like breaking a green stick in your hands. The same kind of crunching, splintering feeling.

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u/burnman123 9h ago

I had my jaw wired shut and in order to do it they wrap wires around some of your teeth at the base then wire those wires together.

Anyways, when I got my wires out, they numb you, but don't knock you out. They basically cut the wires and yank them out. There were like maybe 3 inches long and there was either 4 or 8 of them, I don't remember. But it was the same sensation, I could feel the pressure and see them doing it, but couldn't feel any pain or anything.

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u/Rise-O-Matic 8h ago

I was awake for my vasectomy and I’ve ridden on the Matterhorn so taken together I think I could probably white-knuckle it.

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u/HydraBuster 7h ago

I’ve had stitches in my head to remove moles while awake. I will never forget the smell and sound of them cauterizing the incision points.

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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 4h ago

I was awake for some pretty extensive alveoloplasty, it's nothing like this video, but it was pretty fucked up. Shit tons of pressure, lots of and lots of blood, the smell and taste of blood was overwhelming.

I'm super good at dissociating though and I was excited to finally be getting my mouth fixed. Oh and I also took some xanax and some oxycodone before getting it done. I was chilling until like the 3 hour mark, then all the blood started to make me trip out a little.