Spleen: Vicky

Medical magic.

Long story short: Vicky had a splenic laceration. Nothing dramatic like a car crash—just a weird, unlucky twist during a fall. Her spleen had been quietly bleeding into her abdomen for hours.

It started with a dull ache during a pickup soccer game. Vicky, being Vicky, ignored it. Two days later, she was pale, dizzy, and complaining that her left shoulder hurt—which is weird, because she hadn’t injured her shoulder. That shoulder pain? It’s called Kehr’s sign . When a spleen is bleeding or swollen, it irritates the diaphragm, and your brain gets confused. It thinks the pain is coming from the shoulder.

Have you or someone you know had a surprise organ removal? Tell me in the comments. Vicky is ready to compare scar stories. vicky spleen

So here’s to the unsung heroes of the body. And here’s to Vicky—still vibrant, still fast, and now a little wiser about the small, spongy organ on her left side.

“Vicky,” the doctor said gently, “you’re going to miss your spleen .” They took it out. Poof . One laparoscopic surgery later, Vicky was officially asplenic (fancy word for “no spleen”).

Turns out, that was the right question. Let’s be honest: nobody thinks about their spleen. It’s the wallflower of the organ world. The liver gets all the detox glory. The heart gets the romance. The spleen? It hangs out quietly on the left side of your abdomen, filtering blood and looking for trouble. Medical magic

But Vicky’s spleen decided it was time for its fifteen minutes of fame.

Vicky is fine now. She named her surgical scar “Spencer” (because she’s that person). And every time she gets a vaccine, she jokes, “Pour one out for my spleen.”

She looked at me from the gurney and said, “Am I going to miss my flight to Portugal?” Her spleen had been quietly bleeding into her

Vicky’s Spleen: A Tiny Organ’s Big (and Dramatic) Story Subtitle: What happens when a small, spongy organ decides to steal the spotlight. If you know Vicky, you know she’s all energy. She’s the friend who runs marathons for fun, eats kale without grimacing, and somehow still has the emotional range of a poet. So, when Vicky got sidelined by something called a spleen , we were all confused.

“Wait,” I asked her from the hospital waiting room. “You have a spleen? What does it even do ?”