Some surgeries should NOT be a topic of casual conversation.
I've had surgery. When the topic comes up (which it occaisionally does), I'll tell people what surgeries I've had. But what I won't do is go into excruciating detail. I won't give a play-by-play recap of every little thing that happened. It would be less excruciating to watch a video of the surgery, because at least then, nothing would be left up to my imagination.
Certain surgeries are okay to talk about--my LASIK surgery, for example. If someone is considering LASIK, I'd be completely happy to give them a zap-by-zap narrative, mostly to help the person know what to expect and to help them worry less. I've heard people talk about having warts frozen off, strange growths removed, and hair plugs... uh... planted. None of these types of things bother me in the least. They might make me wince in pain now and again, but I have the same reaction when they talk about frisbee football games in the park.
Today, I asked a co-worker about the band-aid by his eye and he told me about the mole he had removed. I didn't expect him to continue and give me an entire recap of his vasectomy including visuals and descriptions of the "hotter-than-most" female medical assistant that was in the room at the time. Yet I was polite and only excused myself when he started talking about his wife's partial hysterectomy.
No. I DON'T want to hear about surgeries on any parts that might be covered by a swimsuit. PLEASE!
Last week, someone I was talking to went into excruciating detail (and I mean EXCRUCIATING) about his hernia repair operation when I mentioned that my wife's boss had a hernia operation. Only, this person's hernia wasn't a simple intramuscular hernia. Oh, no... It extended into the same areas that you might talk about when describing a vasectomy surgery.
But worst of all was when, a couple of months ago, someone I hardly knew vividly recalled how the doctors completely rebuilt his urethra. Yes, you read that correctly. His urethra.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Maybe if I examine my face closely in the mirror, I'll see some subtle facial expression that screams "Please! Do tell me everything there is to know about your genitalia!" I can't see ANY other reason that ANYONE would feel the pressing need to go into such graphic detail about medical procedures carried out on some of the more... *ahem* ...delicate parts of their anatomies, ESPECIALLY in the presence of people that they hardly know at all.
Yes, I understand that such surgeries are part of life. I also understand that people have such surgeries on a regular basis. But when I listen to highly detailed descriptions of such medical procedures I can't help but picture what was going on, and believe me, there are certain parts of certain people that I'd rather not even speculate about, thankyouverymuch.