July 30, 2008

• Built Ass Backwards

  Today I met a man with no esophagus. Instead, anything he swallowed would shortly pop out a whole about halfway down the side of his neck. I desperately wanted to give him some water to swallow. I guess medicine is all about learning restraint.

  Why did he have no esophagus? Well a long long time ago, he got an incarcerated hernia- basically his organs shifted in a way they werent meant to, and got all tangled up cutting off the blood supply and leading to tissue death. This led to an operation where he had the top part of his esophagus turned into a blind pouch and exiting through a neck hole, the bottom part removed completely along with most of his stomach, so all his feeds are through a tiny little tube that goes directly into his intestine

  Now in many cases, this can be a permanent situation, but for this particular gentlement he was scheduled to have his esophagus reconnected in a few months.

  …

  Are you ready for the best part?

  ….

  When they took his esophagus out, they dont stick it in the fridge. No, to reconnect it, they need something else that is esophagus like…hollow fleshy tube shaped able to pass food. Something like, say, a section of his colon.

  Yes, his new esophagus is going to come from his colon.

  I wonder if everything he eats now will taste like ass?

  • 1:40 am
  • 7 Comments