I will say… the knife edge is quite the challenging spot to put anything into. The installation is difficult because almost no part of the knife edge is actually flat… it’s all curves in every direction. The other aspect is the location itself - prone to a lot of hitting and slamming on things.
It looks to me like what might have happened is the xG3 “zippered” back toward the incision while it healed. This is common as the body tries to close up damage at an equal rate, but the damage at the end of the needle depth is less than the damage at the incision, so the opposite end tends to bind up with proteins and collagen first and start to close. This tends to create a pushing motion on the xG3 since the tissue at the far end is trying to come together and the tissue at the incision end is nowhere near as strong or ready to close yet… so the xG3 nudges closer to the incision.
The fact that it’s white sort of indicates to me there is a lot of pressure there under the skin, which is not allowing proper blood flow to that one small area of skin. This may result in necrosis and a wound opening up. In this case you would have to have it removed. You might try simply pressing in on the magnet with some force and try to nudge it back away from the skin, down the pocket… if it’s not to late to influence healing, it may work. You may try putting a small wad of cotton overtop of it, and then a rigid thing like a popsicle stick, and taping that down so the stick is pressing on the cotton and the cotton is pressing down on the skin… do that for 30 minute intervals if you can… 30 on… 30 off… 30 on… 30 off… don’t leave it on all day as the same necrosis problem will be an issue.
Many thanks Amal, I thought I’d post an update based on your suggestions.
I got a medically trained friend who isn’t squeamish to take a look, and push it further down into the pocket.
I did not enjoy it (painful), but he felt a good pop as it moved further in.
I then took the popsicle stick advice, which seems to have really helped too.
I’ve got photos here for comparison, and to me, it looks like the magnet is sitting much flatter and the discolouration has dropped notably, even just overnight.
It’s likely the fluid surrounding it during encapsulation is pushing it outwards. Prenatals to assist in healing and maybe ibuprofen would help reduce the fluid. But you’ll be absolutely fine just being gentle on it.
There’s no pain or discomfort it’s giving me either, so maybe I am just being overly concerned.
Annoyingly, typing seems to aggravate it, which, working in IT, isn’t super helpful.
The three photos are taken within a couple of minutes of eachother, to show how quickly it goes from looking quite sad and poking out, to retreating again.
That’s the most important. If that’s the case I would personally just let it be. It has to settle down at some point
2 months is not a huge amount of time when it comes to healing. Especially with an awkward position like that encapsulation is going to be slow. If I were you I would just try and be gentle, maybe avoid intentionally moving it.
I voted for remove and try again, but that is what I believe I would do for myself. Personally the pictures with it poking out are the reason why. 3 xSIIDs, 3 xG3s, and a NExT, and none have done that when healing. It may not be a problem now or in the future, but it would be an anomaly for me.
I hate to make a recommendation to someone else just off a gut feeling, but that’s possibly what I’d do if I were in that situation.
I got my friend, who is medically trained, to push it back down in the pocket again.
It brings him great joy to watch me squirm, and it drops quite deep down into the pocket. He let out a squeal of glee as he felt it ripping through the encapsulation to move down further.
I’ve added the printable healing helper around it now it has been pushed into the right spot, rather than trying to push it into the right spot with the tape, I’ll update if it works.
I’m hoping that by pushing it down, and then holding it in the new spot, the tissue will heal to keep it there.
It also makes the insertion of the needle difficult to get over the back of the bevel as it goes under the skin and folds the flap back and under.
Still, bevel up is the easiest way to control the point so you don’t just end up wrecking the skin as you go or piercing out from under the skin. I think as long as you understand that, when you insert you’re going to have to get over that hump when the back of the bevel needs to be pushed under, the thing you can do about the flap is that as you’re removing the needle you can use the point to angle up and kind of coax the skin flap back out. I’ve done that a couple times and it works well, specifically for the 4G needle.
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