What Is The Most Advanced Home Surgery Or Procedure You've Done On Yourself? And How Did It Go?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Robert Frantz, B.S., M.D. Zoology & Medicine and Healthcare, The University of Oklahoma (1996)



I fell in the bathtub. I had a screwdriver in my hand when I did it. Not the tool. The vodka and orange juice drink. I had already had one prior to getting into the bathtub so, when I slipped and the drain plug was forcibly rammed between my second and third toe it didn’t hurt as much as it might have otherwise. I even managed to convince myself that I wasn’t hurt for about five seconds. Then, I saw the bath water turn red. It started to hurt right about then as well.

I drained the water and tried to stop the bleeding with direct pressure. It felt like the cut was between my toes but I couldn’t see it at first. The blood was all over and because it was diluted with water it looked a lot worse than it otherwise might have. When I finally got a good look at it I could see that it was deep and gaping. It was about two centimeters in length but just kept bleeding. That might have been the screwdriver causing that. I knew it was going to need sutures but I wasn’t going to the ER after I had been drinking so I decided to take matters into my own hands (so to speak).

I keep suture kits at home to sew up the kids and their friends. I’ve done home suture jobs about a dozen times. Never on myself however. I assembled everything I needed and got ready to inject the laceration with lidocaine so I could thoroughly clean it. Damn it burned. I learned right there that I had been injecting all my patients too quickly. I slowed down and eventually got it numb. I thought about another screwdriver but decided that should wait till afterwards. In the end, I washed it out and held my toes apart with one hand while I sutured with just my right hand. Harder than it sounds I promise. Eventually, I got four sutures placed in this cut and cleaned it up and placed a dry dressing between my toes.

In the end it did well. No infection but my foot had a horrific bruise. I probably broke my toe. A little later in the year I glued up a head laceration on myself that was about 12 centimeters long. It did well too. Since then, I’ve removed non suspicious skin lesions and closed those sites with sutures too. It makes my wife crazy. It’s probably addictive like tattoos. All my stuff has been pretty minor to be honest. One of my ER doctor colleagues lacerated his leg with a chainsaw. He completely closed the wound himself at home and it was gaping and deep, requiring layered closure and tension sutures. When I saw his handiwork I didn’t mention I had repaired my own toe laceration at home from falling in the bathtub.

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