Skin not exactly closing up

A few weeks ago I implanted a magnet.
It been going well so far but the skin just wont heal closed.
I not extremely experienced. I would appreciate any advice on why it wont close. Should I try to re-stitch?

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  • edited April 2020

    Is that the magnet I'm seeing in the photo (the blackish spot around the dead skin)? If so you definitely did not put it in deep enough. More often than not in cases like this when it doesn't heal it's because the magnet is putting too much tension on the skin flap. It's okay this happens to the best of us and if this is your first time installing a magnet it can be challenging to get the pocket the right depth.

    My advice would be, pull it out, carefully if you want to reuse it, clean the wound, let it heal, and implant it somewhere else. Now as a personal preference I like throwing a suture or two in cases where you may have a high tension condition like this, but if your pocket is deep enough you can get away without using them, others have done it and it's really a matter of what you're comfortable with doing.

  • I'll respond with greater depth later.. sorry, at work. But you do not want to suture it. Trust me here. Sutures are only place immediately in fresh open wounds. Suturing this will lead to a very bad infection.
  • The hole is pretty small (about 2mm). Could I force it close in some way?

  • edited April 2020
    No, you definitely want to take it out. Look at the skin around it, it's dead or close to it, definitely not good. The longer it stays open the more you're putting yourself at risk for infection. Like I said, it's an unfortunately part of the learning curve sometimes, but you're going to want to pull it out, clean the wound, and let it heal.

    If you want to reattempt implanting again, you'll also want to pick a different spot, make sure your pocket is big enough, and then you have your choices for closure, I've shared my preference about that in my post above, but it's just a preference.

    In any case, I think it really should come out. I know that sucks, but you can try again or have a professional help if you don't feel comfortable attempting a second time.
  • Ok. So I'm going to go through today and respond to a number of these posts with people having healing issues. So, I'm not a physician or anything but I am body mod artist. So there's a clear line as to what I can and can't do. For example, even if I knew with 100 percent certainty that you have some particular issue.. I'm not actually formally educated to the degree that my opinion means anything. Lol. So, I can't diagnose what you have going on. Also, because I can't really know what's going on.. I can't diagnose.. thus, of course im not able to proscribe any treatment or type of care. Biohacking is in many ways similar and abbuting on medicine but don't confuse the two. No one under the auspices of being a biohacker should be performing medicine. Period.

    Now, what I can do is say that you may have an infection. I can tell you what to expect when you go see your doctor even. I can tell you about aftercare in great detail and discuss your regimen with you. I can also tell you about some standard practices people use when dealing with problem piercings. For example, many artists I know would advise you to soak your finger in warm sterile saline. It's not going to save your jewelry. Unfortunately, nothing you do now will save that. It's too late in the healing process. The warm saline would soften the tissue and usually a little squeeze would pop the magnet right out of your finger. Most artists would then advise flushing the site with more sterile saline before wrapping with clean gauze. The thing is.. unless that artist performed the procedure they don't really have an investment in it.

    Also, I've seen artists disparage others with work and give poor advice because they're either dicks or just stupid. Ultimately, if you play in biohacking though.. you are responsible to do your own diligence.

    So do your research. If find some method which you think will save it.. then by all means do it. But I've put in a whole lot of those and I've never seen over recover from where you are at. Perhaps a physician would have good advice for you?
  • Thanks for replying and also making it clear for us unexperienced ones that nothing should be taken as absolutes.

    I have an idea; what if I make some of those tiny zip stitches and glue them to opposite ends of the wound?

  • edited April 2020

    Well (and this is just my opinion) because you didn't make the pocket large enough you don't have a good skin flap for closure. It sounds like you really want to try to save it and I can appreciate that, but if you look around the wound, the skin is white, it's dead. You have a rather large hole in your finger at the moment that isn't covered by much and in one spot is completely open.

    To put it more bluntly it is my strong opinion that based on the current state, you do not have the ability to close it no matter what you try. However, just as Cassox gave you his opinion based on his experience, this is just my opinion based on mine and frankly I think we are both telling you the same thing. What you ultimately decide to do with that information is your choice. I just don't see a way to save it and I'm truly sorry about that.

  • It's still worth discussing. So here's the thing.. looking at that pic.. you have a pocket which has formed. It happens. Sometimes fibrous encapsulations form around foreign bodies. Don't ask me why. I'm no doctor.. but I have noticed that sometimes even really well healed perfect procedures end up getting encapsulation. Either way.. you don't even want that to close.
    So if you get that all closed up and healed (in theory) you're going to get really shitty sensation. That's a big wad a fibrous tissue making that little pocket it's sitting in. So right off the bat, it's a waste.
    On top of that.. you NEVER close a wound late. Even in the ER, people get stitches all the time. But if it's been so many hours.. or it was a bite.. or if it's particularly dirty.. the wound won't get sutured at all. You've had this site open for far too long. If it closes, it will trap bacteria and you will get an infection. Right now, the fact that it's open allow seeping to occur. If the wound closed you'd lose the seeping and instead it would swell and the infection would spread.

    It's totally ok! It's a learning experience. Think of how much you learned and how much better you can do the second time around. Keep the magnet and look through the site and the wiki for information on sterilizing it. If you run into any issues let me know!

  • Carl, can I use that photo for some thing? I have a lot of healing photos from people over the years. I'd like to make a gallery. Would you mind if I use this in it?

  • Sure you can use it.

    I did pull it out and I'm glad I did. I must've scratched the coating since the coating stated separating. Luckily the magnet never came in contact with anyting.

  • Interesting. What type of magnet was it?
  • i had the exact same problem, but i just pushed it closed with some gauze, and now its sorta healing. the only problem I'm having is a blister, so I'm guessing some bacteria or something got in, but it doesn't hurt, isn't spreading, and is slowly going away.

  • its partially blistered, in a weird way.

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