All I can say at this point is that I think the x-ray option is good. We had a recent incident with a NExT getting hit so hard it caused the fibrous encapsulation around the implant to break and for surrounding tissues to be damaged to the point there was a small pocket of fluid / edema around the implant site, but the NExT itself was not broken.
I definitely do not want to influence your decision to remove it however, especially if it is actually not working / broken. If you please document the removal process and the end result here, we will ship you a replacement free of charge.
@greydoc is London based unfortunately, he would be an awsome Doc to visit, no explanations about having an implant etc, but he may have some peeps to reccomend in your neck of the woods…hopefully
I am also in the camp of " understanding your concern, but probably / hopefully just swelling"
Hopefully it can stay in.
If you need to extract
here is a guide to provide to the doctor if required
Hey, depending on where you are and availability I’d be happy to take a look / take it out if necessary. I’m free next week quite a bit and @Eyeux and I were discussing a London trip for a beer anyway.
for xSeries you might be able to get one of the few studios who used to do that to implant on you.
Last I checked there were only 3 studios still wiling to inject an xSeries style chip.
For Flexies… there are some of us with enough experience to help. but mostly you end up going abroad or going the DIY route.
Maybe if we get UK peeps to meet a bit more often the ones like me or @greydoc might come out of hiding and start being more “active”.
Although personally I tend to only implant people I know very well, or when I’m abroad.
Worth noting that all of this scene changed a lot here in UK in early 2019. then covid hit…
So all this “there isn’t anywhere to implant in UK” crisis is very recent!
Yeah I jumped on and got a xsiid implanted litterally around the corner but all the shit with Dr evil fucked it up. Don’t understand why people don’t like body autonomy . There’s a few of us in the uk that arnt piercers but have done it enought times that we are comfortable helping out where needed.
Although that said there is the KSEC network which I think still has people installing.
I’m helping a friend with a walletmor install this weekend for example.
Sorry for the delay responding - I took a bit of time away from the screen to keep my hand still/get over the initial “oh f*** I’ve maybe just smashed glass inside my body”
I’ve actually just moved to Glasgow, but I still have ties to North East England too, and can easily travel further if need be.
As an update, my current thinking feeling gently now swelling has gone down is it probably isn’t totally smashed, but it’s possible I’ve fractured the glass but it’s holding it shape (it seems to move as one piece, but again I’m trying not to touch it too much in case)
That being said, if you guys are up for it I think removal would be my best bet at this point, partly for peace of mind, partly morbid curiosity, and so everyone can get the info as to whether it did get damaged or not from a direct hammer hit
Probably worth discussing how risky it is etc but if either of you/both of you are up for it we can pm to discuss further?
I think honestly if you go to your doc and say you have a “foreign object” that needs removal that should be enough to have them go through the removal process. Inform them that it is glass and that grabbing with forceps could shatter it so a simple scalpel procedure should suffice. If it is indeed broken they will have to cut a bit more anyway to ensure they have removed the bits. This should be pretty straightforward… a bit of local lidocaine to numb the area and some pretty basic incisions… any family practice doc should be able to do it.
Heey!
Sorry for the delay, this thing isn’t notifying me, it seems.
Always happy to help!
Although if KSEC is still offering free removals, the shops @KaiCastledine pointed out might be a better bet.
So… “the procedure”, in a simplified nutshell:
a small incision is made with a scalpel to reach one end of the glass shell.
you “squeeze” it from the other end and it comes out.
simple as that.
of course, there are some better ways of “squeezing”. this video explains it in a very good way:
The main risk is… if it is broken.
Actually doing the “grip” shown in the video above should be a good way to figure that out…
So, if it is broken, then not only can it tear your flesh on the way out, but much worst it can leave small shards of glass inside.
To avoid all that, a much more complicated procedure might be required. One of such approaches (for the worst case/completely shattered scenario) would be:
locate the entirety of the implant
make an incision the size of the implant, from the top.
open up and fetch the implant and all pieces using tweezers
clean up, sanitise, apply topic medication
stitch up (preferably with plastic stitches to avoid a scar)
And steps 4 and 5 are the reasons why if it is really smashed you probably want someone better at plastic stitches than I am. >.o (or who can actually apply the necessary medication)
Hey! Sorry for the delay - I took ill and had to take a bit of time away from screens, Retinal migraines aren’t fun in the slightest, especially when it’s my job to look at screens all day!
The implant is actually sitting in a slightly awkward place, very close to where the first and second metacarpal join together (for clarity, the base of the v shape between the thumb and pointer finger in case I’m throwing incorrect medical terms around with reckless abandon), which from what I understand is pretty rich with nerves and arteries/veins so it’s slightly higher risk than if it was in the ‘proper’ place.
My thinking is, given its position it would be ideal if someone with either medical experience or someone with experience removing implants before (ideally both but maybe that’s wishful thinking) could remove it. Does this sound like something you’d be comfortable doing? Probably worth discussing a bit further over PM?
I’ll reach out to a local KSEC shop too to have a chat, I think it’s super cool they offer free removals as a policy, but given the awkward positioning of the implant I don’t want to force anyone to feel like they need to ‘give it a shot’ if they’re slightly apprehensive about carrying it out so I’ll see what the folks there are comfortable doing. I know the piercing outfit I was implanted at (not KSEC) were happy implanting it, but after it migrated they said they really weren’t confident carrying out the removal so I try to bear that in mind
Sorry to hijack, but that’s interesting. I asked my local KSEC installer about removal and they said no and tried to send me towards someone in the Netherlands for removal.
I ended up going to the GP and had it removed at the hospital yesterday.
Hijack away - Always better to have more info on a forum post for people in the future to refer to!
Although in an ideal world you’d expect the people who implanted you to be able to also do removals, after speaking to the shop who did mine (not KSEC approved I should add, just one I heard of word of mouth from a friend) I’m a lot more understanding now. The guy in the shop basically explained that yeah, he probably could give it a shot but the hand is pretty dense with nerves and blood vessels, they have little to no medication available to assist with bleeding (apparently lidocaine is a mild coagulant?) So it would be too high risk for him to attempt happily.
Also because of covid they are “out of practice” and wouldn’t want to jump straight in at the deep end. He likened it to hopping in a car again for the first time after 2 years and driving for 12 hours around London city centre which I loved the analogy of. Plus the whole “Dr evil” fiasco has put a lot of body mod shops somewhat on edge from a legal perspective.
I guess I’m grateful in a sense the shop said no, and didn’t just give it a whack
Out of curiosity, how did the procedure go? Do you mind elaborating on the process from GP to surgery a bit more? Hope you have a speedy recovery!
Not at all. While it was a lengthy process (not helped by Covid I’m sure) they were understanding (if not a bit confused).
The GP took a bit of explaining exactly what the issue was, due to it being a phone call appointment, but they asked for photos and then referred me to the hand clinic at the hospital.
The hospital got in contact a couple of weeks later letting me know they had received my referral, but due to Covid, they weren’t taking any appointments and would be in contact in the future.
Back in June they finally got in contact and booked me in to take an X-ray and take a physical look at it and ask some questions regarding body mods and magnets.
Finally yesterday, I went in to have it removed. The doctor said she tried searching through medical journals to find out as much as she could, but found very little. As a result she wanted to write a medical journal up based on myself, which I quite happily agreed to.
With it being done in a hospital, I unfortunately couldn’t take any photos or videos, but because she was writing a journal up on it, she took photos which she let me take photos of. I’ve posted them in my thread Here
Regarding the magnet that was in my finger previously, it was installed about 6 years ago by a tattoo studio in London, not a KSEC installer. I didn’t ask the installer near me about removing it for free, I was more than willing to pay to have this magnet removed (and get a flexDF2 installed in the back of my hand at the same time).
But he outright refused to remove anything, so I just went to the GP instead and installed the flexDF2 myself.
I’m just surprised to hear that it’s standard policy for a KSEC installer to do free removals, yet my local one refused to do anything.
I feel like that applies to things they have and would install. I fully believe had it have been an x-series implant they would have removed it.
The issue for me would have been a thing of unknown origin implanted by another party into a pretty dangerous area and it was clearly angry… I probably would have recommend a doctor at that point.
So i’m more than happy to speak to your local installer to find out more but there are a few known reasons why they might not deem it safe for them to do so.
Our policy is we ask all of our Cyborg Centers to offer free removals to their customers as part of becoming a KSEC approved installer. We can’t force them if they deem it unsafe and they think a doctor should perform it instead.
The removal policy is for people wanting to upgrade, swap our a dead implant, or change their mind etc. If the device was broken into pieces then it would be out of scope for them to remove from a liability/legal point of view and a doctor would be the place to go.
Was the device damaged when it was finally removed or was it just the positioning ?
This was a year ago, so forgive me if I miss a few details, but from memory I was asking about removing the magnet that was in my finger (due to the loss of strength, puffiness and people in my thread saying to get it removed) and replacing it with an xg3.
The magnet was in one piece when it came out and at the time it felt like one solid mass, so I don’t believe it was thought to have been in pieces. That being said it was in the finger tip so I understand about being a bit cautious and refusing.
What did shock me though was the referral to someone in Netherlands.
There a few pictures in my thread that I got from the doctor when it was removed showing it’s placement and size.
. There’s a few of us in the uk that arnt piercers but have done it enought times that we are comfortable helping out where needed.
