A Real Man

Back when Nick was hit on his street bike he had screws placed at the top of his leg and ankle and a rod placed in his tibia bone.  Long story short, the screws in his ankle have been bothering him for a while and every time he would walk for long periods at a time it would start to hurt.  Nick's doctor decided it would be best if they just took them out.  Nick was all for this except for one tiny thing, he was NOT willing going to go under general anesthesia.  So it pretty much came down to Nick saying you can take the screws out IF I don't have to go under, and the doctor agreed.  On the day of the "surgery"  Nick showed up and was at the hospital for 5 hours before being brought back to the OR because there was a huge mix up between the doctors office and the hospital.  Long story short they kept telling Nick that he had to be put under general anesthesia or the procedure wasn't going to happen.  The doctor came and said he didn't need to be under anesthesia and that they would use a local anesthetic to numb the area and then do the procedure.  They marked the leg that they were going to "operate" on with a YES and the other leg with a NO, shaved a tiny area, and wiped his leg with that yellow stuff to sanitize and kill off any bacteria.  Before starting the procedure the anesthesiologist in the room (he was on stand by just in case of an emergency) said that in his 15 years of being in the OR he has never seen a person who chose to be awake during a procedure like this.  Nick said that everyone in the room seemed fascinated to see this done and to see Nick's reaction to it all.  The doctor numbed the area, waited a few minutes and then cut open the skin where the screws were.  Nick said that after that, the doctor stuck his fingers in there and started digging around to find the first screw (that part of the entire thing was the worst part because the doctor was digging and he would hit the nerves and Nick could feel it), once he found it he had to burn off the tissue that grew over the screw and then he used a drill to get the screw out.  He did the exact same thing to the other area with the screw, stitched Nick back up and they were done.  The procedure took all of 5 minutes to perform.  Nick said that everyone in the room was so amazed that he actually went through the procedure awake, and as a token the doctor let Nick keep the 2 screws.  I could never imagine doing that myself or anyone for that matter, it takes a man to do something like that.

The screws in his leg.