Welcome to the operations page! In the interests of science, all the latest operations can now be found here.
In the summer of 2006 Miss Emma made it to the theatre, and as promised the details are below....
The appendectomy (May 2001)
Some of you may remember Mr R-D's sudden absence from school on Friday 18th May 2001 (just after the second Science paper at the end of SATs week!). This was due to the sudden and unexpected need to operate to remove that bit of stuff in between the small and large intestine (the appendix) at rather short notice (I didn't feel too hot on the Friday I can tell you).
The appendix is in between the large and small intestines. It doesn't really serve any purpose in humans (rabbits use theirs) and sometimes it can become totally infected (ouch) and has to be removed.
If your stomach is feeling up to it, and just for those scientists at Halesworth Middle School, here is a photograph of an appendix removal operation (an appendectomy) followed by the scar afterwards:
The knee arthroscopy (August 2002)
Some of you were wondering why we were still in the UK in October 2002. This was partly due to the need to take some cartilage out of my knee following a skiing accident (whoops). See what you make of these:
In the skiing accident, the cartilage (see picture) had been torn. Pain was caused by this torn cartilage catching as the knee moved. The torn cartilage therefore had to be shaved smooth.
A small hole is cut in each side of the knee to allow the camera and the scalpel to get in there (keyhole surgery):
One of the gadgets in the above diagram is a camera so the surgeon can see just what he's doing. This is one the photos taken during an operation:
The thyroidectomy (June 2006)
What is a thyroidectomy?
The surgical removal of all or part of the thyroid gland. This may happen when a patient has cancer of the thyroid gland, or there is some other big problem with it. Notice the end of the word 'ectomy' also appears in 'appendectomy' above. What do you think it means?
What and where is the thyroid gland?
It is important for making the hormone thyroxine which controls the rate that all chemical processes work at in your body (especially those that cause food to be used for energy and growth). This rate is known as metabolism.
So what happened next?
Well in the summer of 2006 (a hot one in Suffolk) Emma's thyroid swelled up to quite a size and off we popped to the jolly James' Paget (Healthcare NHS Trust) for a sample to be taken.
A week or so later they whipped half of it out in a swift operation, whilst Mr R-D sweated it out on Gorleston beach. After a further look at what the surgeons had removed from Miss Emma, they decided all was now well again and she could keep the other half.
The ruptured diaphragm (July 2007)
What is a diaphragm? The diaphragm is a shelf of muscle extending across the bottom of the ribcage. The diaphragm separates the thoracic cavity (lungs and heart) from the abdominal cavity (mostly the digestive system). In its relaxed state, the diaphragm is shaped like a dome.
Rather unexpectedly, Spooky the cat took the next opportunity to occupy the centre stage in the Theatre.
Suffering very badly from difficult breathing one Saturday night, we rushed her into a Smith & Ryder-Davies surgery in Woodbridge. Midnight x-rays diagnosed a ruptured diaphragm and with immediate surgery not being a possibility due to her frantic state, we tucked her up for a night in hospital. The following morning an operation discovered that, in addition to the torn diaphragm, a ruptured spleen had adhered (healed) to her heart. Strangely, the spleen rupture had happened several years ago. On Saturday, most of this had then suddenly slipped through the tear in the diaphragm, taking the stomach and some of the liver with it. With no diaphragm to push down on, the lungs were working very badly. Chances of success under the knife weren't too high, but in Lucy's skilled hands magic was performed and, after two hours, the Spooky was sporting a scar which belittles our pitiful attempts.
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