Botched Implant Procedure

edited April 2015 in Procedures
So, I tried to implant my two M31s last night into my left middle and rings fingers. It didn't go too well.

Having never cut into myself before I had to rely @cassox's blog post and stories from here as to what I was doing. I sterilised everything, used chlorhexidine, etc., and cut in the right spot. Sort of.

My initial cut was more angled than it should have been, so from there I had to pull the skin slightly to cut downwards, which was no big deal. However, I kept looking for the 'red tissue' described by a few people where I should start making the pocket. I wasn't able to see it, at all, before I started getting deeper than I was comfortable with.

(Picture to go here. Is there any way to upload a picture from an iPhone? Simply copy/pasting doesn't seem to work).

As you will see from the pictures above, there were little white nodule/noodle type structures appearing in the cut. What are they? Should I be cutting further than that, or have I gone way too far? I didn't use lidocaine as I feel I am pretty good with pain, and it didn't turn out to be an issue, although I did notice that as I got down far enough, the incisions weren't hurting, at all. Again, is this to far? Not far enough?

Upon closer inspection of one side of the wound I saw a faint pinkish tinge to the skin about 1/4-1/2mm down. Is this the fabled 'red tissue' where I should have started making the pocket?

I'd appreciate everyone's opinion on this so I can be more informed next time, hopefully leading to a seccessful implant.

Cheers.

Comments

  • Need pics to comment really. You can upload them to photobucket or something.
  • imgur, all the way.
  • http://imgur.com/a/9kQFf

    Link to the album. The top picture is today's healing (about 20 hours after procedure).
  • It looks appropriately deep. Perhaps a tad too deep but nothing to be concerned about. If your using a tourniquet and exsanguinate then the tissue won't be the same red. I think you were hitting little pockets of adipose tissue there.
  • I thought it looked a bit like fatty tissue.

    I was using a tourniquet, but have no idea what exsanguinate is. I'll have to look that up.

    So hitting adipose tissue is a tad too deep/around the right depth? How do you recommend starting the pocket. I tried briefly with some surgical scissors and felt a strand of something that was quite hard to break, so I was also unsure whether that was the right spot to start the pouch.
  • @alternate , please read up on what youre cutting into before you do. This could have resulted in muvh more serious of an outcome if you had been cutting somewhere else. There are countless references for scientific and anatomical information online and i would suggest you study a bit more before making anymore holes in yourself. Im glad nothing really bad happened
  • @lex I have read enough up to the point where I felt comfortable doing this. I didn't count on the fact that I would have such trouble distinguishing layers and depth. I'm also glad nothing serious happened, although if I were implanting these in a spot more susceptible to damage I don't think I would be attempting this myself.
  • edited April 2015
    So, exsanguination can mean 2 different things for our purposes. 
    1. Death by loss of blood (Unlikely, but passing out is a maybe if you don't do your hemostasis properly)
    2. Removing the majority of the blood in an area of tissue.
    Definition 2 is what @cassox meant. When I get home, I'll do some tests and see what the best way of doing this is. What kind of tourniquet did you use?

    --EDIT--
    So, (Use something sterile to do this) you can fairly effectively exsanguinate the finger by taking something like a rubber band, tightening it off of the finger to a degree that it will effectively limit blood flow, and roll it up from the tip of the finger to the base. Your finger should be nice and pale. If there are any other areas that still seem slightly red, you can take a second tourniquet, repeat the process with the first tourniquet on, but stop before the first tourniquet, and remove said first tourniquet before rolling it the rest of the way. 
  • Yeah, the best method is to use something like a t ring finger turniquet. As you apply them, they force blood out of the finger. I've trialled castration band's as well. They work great but are a bitch to get on. Also would provide way too much pressure on larger fingers.
  • edited April 2015
    Ah, cheers for clearing that up Cass and Grey Knight. All I got from a very quick Google was the first description.

    I used a hair tie at the base of the finger as a tourniquet, and massaged the blood out of the finger much like @aviin described in his procedure.

    So, stupid question time. Everyone feel free to chime in. Is the pocket being made is between the epidermis and dermis, between the dermis and the hypodermis, or is it splitting the dermis apart? (For reference, I put my hand through a window recently and found the skin on top of my middle finger had pulled away from the underlying tissue pretty freely, and had assumed something of the sort would happen on the finger. Evidently not, though, unless I did something wrong).
  • I'm still researching the topic, and @cassox could give you a far better description, but I'd aim for midway through the dermis, so it's surrounded by nerve-dense tissue and held down by the basement membrane. 

    Massaging the blood out seems pretty tedious. How long did that portion of the procedure take? And jumping back a little bit, when you mentioned that your initial incision was too angled, what did you mean? 
  • edited April 2015
    Sounds good Grey. I'll wait and see what Cassox reckons but your opinion sounds logical.

    I wasn't too bothered with being 100% with the blood, I just pushed down from the tip of the finger to the base a few times until the finger lost a little colour. I figured getting some of the surface blood removed quickly was better than removing most of the blood over a longer period - maybe next time I'll compare a control with pushing the blood out over the two fingers to see if it makes any difference.

    As for the cut, when I made the very first incision, the cut was angled at about 45* to the skin, instead of perpendicular (90*).
  • These are truly meant to be subdermal. You need to get into the hypodemis. The reason is that you need the proliferative layers to be above the magnet. If you place it intradermal then the skin wears away without replacements and the cells beneath push the magnet up and out. For any other area of the body it's so easy to know when you are there. The fingers just junction together so closely that sometimes it's hard to know how deep to go.
  • Cheers Cass. I'll keep that in mind for next time. That's interesting about the skin healing if the magnet is place intradermally. I'll try and keep a closer eye on the layers next time.

    As an aside, is there feeling in the hypodermis? I've had trouble finding an accurate anatomy of the fingertip to distinguish relative thicknesses and such.
  • I dont know what other grinders suggest, but id say to go a little farther than just under the skin, get into connective tissue and implant there. That way there is more nervous tissue for the implant to interact with and more cushion so that it doeasnt crack.
  • Before things get confusing, subcutaneous is Latin. It means beneath the skin. Hypodermis? It's Greek, meaning beneath the skin. These refer to the same thing, a particular layer of the integument. Talking about tissues is a different thing. There are four types. Connective tissue is damn near everywhere.The dermis is in fact richer in connective tissue than the Hypodermisif we're talking density of fibers like collagen and elastin. The subcutaneous is mostly adipose tissue which is also considered to be connective tissue. So talking about tissue types isn't a great way to describe
  • ... Good point @Cassox . Pretty much what i mean is just make sure you get a little bit past under the skin, as long as it is fairly deep for cushioning as i wqs talking about in my last post.
  • I figured that's what you meant. Just trying to be hyperliteral in this case.
Sign In or Register to comment.