 From the title and topic of this video, you may already be aware of this, but I am gonna be talking about medical things, nothing graphic is gonna be shown, but if you are squeamish about medical terms or about surgeries or discussions of things like that, this may not be the video for you, check out one of my other videos linked above. But if you wanna see me, an amputee, react to an animated version of amputation surgery, press on, my dear friend. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, sweet, and delightful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me today on Footless Joe. I am Joe, I am missing a foot. And today's video might be a really bad idea. This is my comfort hoodie. I don't know if you guys have noticed, I used to wear this hoodie a lot in videos when I was recovering from my surgeries. You ever seen me in this hoodie, you know it's either a really cozy day or I need comfort. I've had this thought for quite some time. Brian made me promise that I would not watch any leg amputation videos on YouTube before my leg amputation. He thought it would be too traumatic for my brain and I'm gonna be honest, I think he was probably right. But, while searching for amputee in YouTube the other day, cause I like seeing what other people are doing with videos and gathering ideas and resources and things to react to and things of that nature, it came across an animated video of leg amputation. And listen, it's two years after my initial amputation, I feel like I'm in a good headspace to see what happened while I was unconscious as they removed a body part. I've always imagined sort of a battle act situation, you know, just, but I think it's probably a little bit more nuanced than that and we're gonna find that out today. If you wouldn't mind hitting the like button while you're here and consider subscribing to this channel, it would help out my channel a lot and I would really appreciate it. So as we dive into this potential train wreck of a video, I don't know, maybe it'll go really well. I don't know, maybe I'll be scarred for life. I would like to give a big thank you to our sponsor. Come closer, I have a secret for you. The secret is that I'm a little bit sick and so I'm gonna be whispering for the duration of this ad. In today's video, you and I are gonna be learning together about what it actually takes to surgically cut off someone's limb for an amputation. And if amputation is really not your cup of tea, maybe you'd like to learn about something that interests you. Enter the solution, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community that I have been a part of for many months now with thousands, literally thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people to take part in. Think of a topic, any topic and chances are they have a course on it. 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Using that link, you will not only support this channel, but also unlock a world of creativity and inspiration for yourself. Thank you to Skillshare for making this video possible and let's dive back into me watching an animated person get their leg chopped off. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a fun time to me. All right, I think it's time. I think it's time. I am now reconsidering my choice of video today. Let's do it. I can handle this. And if not, I can always turn it off. That's the great thing. Principles of meditation. I can get on board with that. Such a collaboration of an extremity should be viewed as first step towards a more productive life rather than a failure to save the limb. Oh, I love that actually. He talks about that it should be viewed as the first step towards a more productive life rather than a failure. This is interesting because I've heard that a lot of orthopedic surgeons view amputation as failure because it's their job to like fix joints and fix bones and things like that. It can be a failure in their mind to have to resort to amputation. Sometimes that's the best way you can possibly serve a patient. So I appreciate that we started out on this note. We're gonna skip past indications because that's not what I'm interested in today. I'm interested in what they actually did. Did they use a battle axe? Ambulation is the chief concern. The most distant level possible is chosen. I actually think this is kind of interesting because I'm not gonna argue with the surgeon here but from my experience and also conversations I've had it, yes, leaving as much of your leg as possible is great. However, a lot of prosthetics need more room than like if they just removed my ankle. I have a whole video about that coming up. If something's really wrong with your foot and they amputate your leg, chances are they're not just gonna like leave your ankle there though in some cases they absolutely do but if you want a like active functional prosthetic foot there is a certain amount of clearance. That's why I'm looking for clearance that's below the end of your residual limb. For instance, my leg is about six inches below my knee. That's where it ends. When it was a little bit longer before I had to have that second amputation it was really a lot more difficult to get prosthetics to fit because there wasn't enough room for all these cool parts and pieces. There are absolutely options. Prosthetists are amazing and find different solutions to work with you no matter your level of amputation but there definitely is a benefit in having like six to seven inches below your knee and no more but don't take my word on that I'm not a surgeon, that's just been my experience and my conversations with other amputees. A tonic should be used except in severely schemic limbs. Okay, turn a kit, check. The skin flaps should be of full thickness and dissection between tissue planes should be avoided to prevent further de-bascularization of the tissues. Tissue flaps is not a fun term. Muscles are sectioned at least five centimeter distal to the intended bone resection. They may be stabilized by myodeses that is suturing muscles or tendon to the bone. Myodeses is the preferred method as it provides stronger insertion. So I'm pretty sure myodeses is what they did for me. The major purposes should be isolated and individually ligated. I like the little bows they put on them, how nice. Before you chop them off. This is such a happy little diagram animation of removing someone's body part of cutting through skin and bone and blood vessels. That image of them just like removing the muscles is a little unnerving considering that's literally what they do. Now should be isolated, gently pulled out and sharply divided so that the cut and retracts deep into the soft tissue envelope as it is. So they like pull the nerve out, cut it, and then like springs back into your body? Is that really what they do? Excessive periosteal stripping should be avoided to reduce regenerative bone here over good. I like how they show the saw animation like boop boop done. I do think about them sawing through my leg bone sometimes and I'm fine with it considering it did happen and I don't remember it because I was asleep. But it is a little uncomfortable to think about. Just someone sitting there, you know, like it just, it's kind of weird. Proper bone and soft tissue handling are necessary for crafting a healthy and functional amputation. Just pull that sucker on off. All right. Post-operatively, a rigid dressing consisting of plaster of Paris cast is applied to the stomach. Interesting that in this demonstration video they say it's a cast because most people I know have not had a cast after amputation. I did for both of mine. There are pros to that. There are cons to that. I think different surgeons have different styles with it. But from my understanding, it's actually a little less common to have a cast than to have a cast. I had a lot of people who were really confused as to why I had a cast in the first place. Isn't it fascinating how they like leave this? Okay, I hate the term skin flaps that did creep me out a little bit, but they leave skin so that they can like fold it up and create a new bottom of your leg because if they just did a battle axe method, right? First of all, you'd probably bleed out and that wouldn't be good for anyone. But they do it almost like cutting out a V in your leg really helps to give it room to like close and provide some padding on the end of your leg there. I never really thought about the fact that they're like going through individual muscles and like segmenting them out and then removing those and then going through blood vessels and which of course they would have to do. And then the nerve thing is really weird. The rigid dressing is helped in reducing the demerit at the surgical site leading to improved wound healing and early maturation of the stupost operative pain is also observed to be less with rigid dressings leading to earlier ambulation and rehab today. I love how happy and upbeat this music is. It just sets the mood perfectly. Well, let me start up by saying that was not at all traumatic to watch. I think if I watched like an actual amputation surgery, maybe I'll do that one day if I really feel like it, but I have a feeling that would be a little more challenging to watch. Can I do want to do that video? Cause I kind of do want to see what they did to me but I think that might not be a good idea. It is weird seeing the process of what they did to my body animated and shown. It's interesting to learn about more of the actual steps that are done during an amputation. Gross side note. I've always wondered who my foot was handed to, right? Like is it some, some intern or some resident doctor that my doctor was just like, here, here's a foot. It is no longer needed to be attached to a person. Please young intern, go bring it to be burnt. I'm pretty sure they like bag it up too, which I don't know that kind of weirds me out. I don't want to be in a bag, but that's the way they do things. And then they bring your limb down, your separate limb or the part of you that is no longer part of you down to the incineration chambers and they burn it pretty straight forward there. It blows my mind that at least for me, my first amputation I think was like two and a half hours, my second was like three and a half. There's a lot that they have to do. There's a lot of very intricate work that needs to be done. And it blows my mind that they can do it in such a short period of time. I have a lot of respect for surgeons. You know, it's definitely science, right? But it's also an art, like gauging where to remove things and where to move things. There's a lot of a guesswork and art that can often go into that. And I appreciate surgeons. I can't imagine what long days they have standing over your body opened up. So if you're a surgeon watching this, just know that there is someone out there who appreciates the work and the art that you have to perform in an OR. I have to say I have been attracted to like being in the medical field, like growing up. I thought I might be a nurse. I was a CNA for a while, which was a certified nursing assistant, which I think the name has changed since then. But like, I've been in hospitals. I've been in nursing homes. I've been a part of taking care of people, both physically and emotionally. It's hard work. I have a lot of stories on this channel about not super awesome experiences with doctors and surgeons, because when you've seen as many doctors and surgeons as I have, obviously not every interaction is gonna be awesome. And I do have some challenges with medical professionals. I do wanna note that nurses have pretty much always been fantastic to me. But regardless, I know that working in the medical field is a really, really hard career. It is something that I have a lot of respect for. So if you're someone who's entering that field or is in that field, thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you for the work that you're doing during this pandemic. I can't imagine the mental and physical toll that this must have on everybody dealing directly face to face with people suffering from COVID and going through all of this and just medical professionals are incredible people and thank you for the work that you do. Okay, so I thought I might need some comfort ice cream at the end of this video, but I'm totally fine. I'm good with animated versions of surgeries. It is kind of cool to know more about what happened and what went into it. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and end it there. Thank you again to our sponsor for sponsoring this video, all their information is linked down below. Thank you to my patrons so much for being a part of this channel financially, contributing to what I do. You make a huge, huge difference. You guys are the reason that I can do this. Thank you if you're interested in joining Patreon. Link on screen or down below. It is a place where you can financially support creators that you care about, that you support, that you believe in and in return, you get a little bit of a community and you get some perks. For instance, I recently released a video of me taking the puppies for a car ride to get pappuccinos. If you don't know what a pappuccino is, check it out. And early updates, occasionally early videos and things of that nature. So check it out if you feel like it. But to you, watching this video right now, thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your day to hang out with me here today and learn a little bit more about amputation surgery. I bet that's not what you thought you would be doing today. It's not what I thought I was gonna be doing today. And then I had the idea a couple of hours ago and I was like, yes, let's do that. Thank you for being here. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye, guys. -♪ Have her from the sky.