I’ve had a NExT implanted in my left hand for the past ~4 years. It’s in the fleshy part between my thumb and pointer finger, and is just deep enough to not be discernable to the touch. The low frequency antenna hasn’t been readable for a few years, but otherwise I haven’t had any issues with it until a few days ago, when I started to feel some discomfort (pins and needles, numbness, something not quite like pain, but maybe extreme muscle tiredness/tightness/spasming?) which has come and gone, but mostly persisted for the last 4-5 days.
I went and got an x-ray of my hand yesterday, and they assured me that it doesn’t look like the implant is broken (still waiting to receive the images to look myself), and did not advise one way or another on getting it removed. I’m wondering:
Has anyone else experienced this with their implant or has any (non-medical advice) suggestions on cause/way forwards?
At the clinic, the doctor asked me “how would you get it out” as if they wouldn’t attempt it themselves – if I had to get it removed, where should I go to do that? Since I can’t feel or see it where it’s implanted, it seems a bit too intimating to remove it myself
i get mild discomfort in extreme cold, other than that it could just be rubbing up against nerves/muscle/tendon and making your body feel weird. my advice would be to massage the area away from whatever its nearest to and think about environmental factors.
if it was broken you’d know. it inflames a lot.
they’re not biobonded, an injection of anaesthetic and some saline to swell the area and a scalpel and it will pop right out. i don’t see how a doctor couldn’t do this.
It could be nerves trying to reconnect… it can take a very long time… 7 to 10 years sometimes for nerves to reconnect. The question of cause should be somewhat answerable by pressing on and playing with the implant. If touching it and pushing on it causes immediate reaction like the sensations you are reporting, then there is something going on directly with the implant interacting with theirs. If not then it could be nerves doing their own thing.
I know this was reported to be a thing, even I talked about it. But I have since attempted five times on two people and I could not get the implant to “pop out”… I don’t know if it was me, my technique, or what… but this is quite challenging actually.
If the doctor wants to try to retrieve it through more normal means, a small scalp incision should be made and then effectively pushing on it from behind like you’re trying to pop a pimple should result in it breaking through the collagen encapsulation and kind of shoot out.
Thanks for the insight. It has been cold, and certainly possible there are some environmental factors at play. I also recently (weeks ago) got a new laptop which my hand rests on for 8 hours a day – I can feel my xG3 (on the other side of the hand) interacting with it a bit, maybe possible it’s tweaking my NExT as well.
No inflammation or discoloration in the area, so my anxious mind is feeling more settled about it being intact.
No sharp sensations when pushing on the area, but maybe a bit tender. Will wait it out a bit and see how the feeling progresses. Thanks!
Rewording may be in order. no biobonding means it doesn’t have to be forcibly ripped from the flesh but it does need to come out of its encapsulated pocket, not as easy as just making a hole on the skin.
when i had an xnt removed (by a modder) she cut a line and then went back in and scored the implant lightly and it popped right out. she was only trying to make a tunnel but must have released it from its pocket letting it come free easily.
still, i’ve had a broken implant taken out by a doctor in under 5 minutes, i wouldn’t think an intact one out of the abilities of a doctor depends what doctor you’ve gone to i suppose.
Ok so this may just be because you’re giving it a little pressure all day during your workday and it’s slightly irritating the tissue around it. That is likely causing some small amount of irritation, and with it, inflammation. What does inflammation do to surrounding tissue like nerves? It pushes on it. Nerves don’t like to be pushed on. They get tingly and numb… and pain corpuscles start getting sensitive to even slight pressure.
I think it’s just irritated like you said, possibly from your new work laptop situation.