Finally one of the crew and with superglue too!

edited February 2015 in Procedures
Ok so as the title says im finally one with the magnets as it were. The procedure went smoothly until the end where I made the decision to switch form sutures to super glue as my wound closure method. Nothing wrong with that far as i can tell and it worked really well. covered everything in triple antibac and wrapped it up in gauze. I found that rinsing wounds and piercings with sterile contact solution works very well as it squirts nicely, is sterile and contains some antibac as well. no bleeding after closure and i've changed the gauze once just to clean it up and reapplied triple antibac. taking Tylenol for inflammation and pain management as i didn't have ibuprofen on hand. Honestly, the procedure is much easier to do than i initially anticipated. no different than working in my dissection labs. I'll keep you updated on progress to see if superglue is viable.

Edit: used 2 m31s 1 in my ring and pointer finger respectively on my left hand
edit2: forgot to mention, magnet was sterilized with the solution that it came with but was diluted slightly with iso to make sure it was well covered. everything was done in a special bioconatinment box I have with arm holes so no airflow.
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Comments

  • Quick comment - Acetaminophen doesn't have antiinflammatory properties as far as I know. Ibuprofen is better. ASA works too although it has an anti-platelet aggragation effect. After a few days, ice water is great. Any time you have redness or swelling ice it down.

    Be super super cautious with the super glue. Thin is better and don't try to peel off old layers. You'll take the

  • edited January 2015

    healing tissue right off. If possible I'd also keep a steristrip or at least a bandaid over it to relieve some of the tension on the incision. Yeah, I think contact lens solution is a great idea actually. I'll double check the ingredient but even if there is something nasty, the concentration is low enough to... well to put it in your eye.

    Congrats and you're right... once you commit and cut it's not really difficult.

  • ok new day and update time. everything seems to be healing fine for the most part. the exception being a bit of swelling where I did the nerve block on my pointer finger. the base of the finger has swollen and feels a bit warm. I'm not sure what this is but will be going to get some ibuprofen and have been icing it. icing seems to help a little but not significantly. hopefully it's jsut a reaction to the lido or swelling and bruising from the injection. both nerve block sites feel soar, the same feeling after u'd get any sort of injection but only one is swollen. the incision sites themselves look good. no noticeable bruising although the area feels tight which is to be expected. again likely swelling from tissue damage of cutting into them. magnets look good, still hidden nicely under the skin. I can feel them if i press lightly on the area which is gonna take some getting used to.
  • The injection sites? Hmm. What size needle? How much volume? Details on the lido source?
  • went over this with glims. The swelling went down with ibuprofen and ice. I think it was damage due to the tourniquet. lido was purchased online in the form of a trauma kit. less than 1ml per finger. it was a tiny insulin needle.
  • Congrats, @drjaaz!

    As to feeling it, yeah, you certainly can feel them when you press on the area, but you get used to it pretty quickly.  It actually amuses me now more than anything else.
  • edited January 2015
    stupid update. smashed my healing wound on a falling pan. no damage to the magnet i hope and a drop or two of blood but nothing major. hopefully this isn't going to screw with healing to badly.

    Edit: update to update. things are looking up. the initial swelling issue is all but gone. i was able to super gently remove the super glue on the smashed finger (it was coming off almost entirely on it own anyway) and so was able to clean up the area first with a bit of iso, reapplied triple antibac and a fresh thin layer of superglue. everything is holding nicely. no more blood is present in the wound and as such all seems to be looking up. i've kept it bandaged to help the glue stay sealed and clean but give it a saline rinse and air when possible. it has no gotten to the point where i can leave it out of the bandages and not worry about it. they have both started to itch ever so slightly which i know my body and that happens when things start to heal very quickly (im unusually used to being cut open due to various hobbies and accidents). if all goes well i hope this will be testament to the viability of the superglue method. However it still makes no sense to me how anyone could have done that incision without lido. that would have hurt a lot. as such i'm a big proponent of making sure you have it and the proper tools on hand if you are going to attempt this yourself. both areas are no longer swollen, or particularly painful on contact. i can push lightly around the areas, there is no hardness or pain at all. i feel it is healing very nicely and am in turn quiet content with the healing. i figure the glue can come off my pointer finger tomorrow as the glue is coming off on it's own time anyway and it was both the better incision and seems to be healing better of the two. Also i have ordered piercing needles in preparation for the other hand as i will try that method next.
  • Glad to hear that things are going well.  I am curious about the use of super glue.  Is it Dermabond or just, well, super glue?  I've read super glue is toxic to some degree.

    As to doing it without lido, yes, well, it hurts alot.  Needle implantation, at least in my case, hurt even more.  I genuinely had nightmares about it for the first week after I did the first one.  I did them about two weeks apart each and the day prior to and day of each implantation after the first, I had a fair bit of anxiety leading up to it that became nauseousness in the moments before I did each.  Not for the faint of heart, to be sure.  Fortunately, there's almost no pain at all once you finish.  Maybe that's because compared to what you've just gone through, it is so insignificant that it just doesn't register, but at any rate, it is a blessing.
  • just regular superglue from the dollar store. i've heard nothing about toxicity.
  • Wikipedia has some info on toxicity.  Sounds like superglue is usually ethyl cyanoacrylate.  It can be a skin irritant.  Dermabond and the like are butyl cyanoacrylate.  If you're not having issues, I guess it must be okay, though.
  • ok so update time and some pictures! update before show and tell: so the superglue came off one finger (pointer) today exposing the incision. you can see the skin has started to fuse together and the scab has formed nicely. im still keeping it bandaged and covered in triple antibac. a note about bandages. if possible get the stretchy fabric kind. holy fuck are they more comfortable. the plasticky ones suck and stick to nothing. the one that got smashed is doing well. the glue layer is a bit thick but perfectly clear so you cans see in. some of the flesh around the wound has turned white and i believe it will be sloughed off once the wound itself heals and such which im ok with. still no redness or hardness on either and more importantly no pain. im almost able to type properly again which is nice. now, i know i shouldn't be playing with stuff yet but we all know the temptation is there so i tried to pick up a paper clip with the more healed one. 

    holy shit.

    it was the craziest feeling. the thing practically shot to my finger (a nod to the strength of these things) and it felt like i was shocked with electricity. my brain obviously had no idea what to do with the sensation yet. also as i was taking pictures i realized how close my hand was to my computer and noticed that the odd feeling went away when i moved away. damn this is cool! either way i seem to be healing nicely and am making preparations for the other ones (tragus and other hand)

    ok show and tell time. i don't have initial pics since everything was bandaged immediately but i do have video which i'll probably edit and such this weekend to get it up. in no particular order here is; the biocontainment chamber, sterile instruments wrapped in sterile cloth pre-op, my pointer finger and my ring finger as of today jan 13/15

  • edited January 2015
    question, how many days after should you keep it bandaged and triple antibac and all that jazz? i keep reapplying antibac and bandages throughout the day even though both cuts appear closed. i'll be continuing this until the weekend unless it's pointless.
    also how long do i have to be gentle with it? im itching to get back to the parkour gym (avoiding the metal stuff, mostly the trampoline and vaults and such) but am skipping at least this week, possibly next as well
  • "all that jazz"... heh

    ok, so here's the deal. A bandage isn't just to stop your ish from popping open, it also applies a bit of controlling pressure that helps with the healing process. I'm totally paraphrasing the process here. Cass can provide a better answer. He kept his steristrips on for about 2 weeks or so.

    On 'being gentle with it'... You have just placed a metal rock bit into your finger. You have, despite the ease in which it was accomplished, undergone a bit of minor surgery and an implant procedure. For chrissakes, act like it. Just cause it's small and easy doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve the proper aftercare that any other implant deserves. This means time.

    Take at least two weeks before you start smashing it about. This means pots and pans too ;)  The longer you let it heal, the better the healing will be.
  • i am treating it like surgery that's why i've been so careful with it. i don't want to be rough with it as i want nothing more than to have it be succesful. im just antsy and excited so i figured it's worth asking. and it was. 2 weeks it is. gonna run up a heck of a bandage bill but it's worth it  :P or i need to find a bigger box :P
  • update time again.
    so ibuprofen is the greatest. so long as it's in my system all is good in the world. So subsequently mornings are less good. Both cuts have almost completely sealed but a day or two ago I woke up to a single drop of blood in the bandaid on my ring finger. since then whenever i take the bandaids off after a few hours to air and change them, there's a tiny bit of blood, although diminshingly so and now it's mostly just plasma. the drop size is now almost non existent so that's good. also after the first drop the magnet seems to have descended a little lower into my finger. there's not pain really, although i still can't type properly as afraid of irritating them. both are usually itchy which should mean they are healing. i figure the cuts will be totally closed in another day or two tops and then i'll give it an extra week before i start really using the hand again fully.
  • @drjaaz have you been near a microwave yet?
  • no been avoiding stuff so I don't damage the tissue and cause rejection. may try tonight quickly though

  • Also just noticed, the magnet in my ring finger has shifted. Not deeper as I thought, but towards the incision. It not sites with the incision running ontop of it, which i find a little weird. I means it's higher up on my finger than I'd expected. I tried confirming where it was by holding a stretched out paper clip over it to see where the field starts but it was far stronger than I thought and it got sucked down and hurt quiet a bit. No more stupid experiment. re sterilized, more antibac, back in a bandaid before i have a chance to fuck it up.
  • ^THAT is the appropriate answer.
  • which? the recent post?
  • ah crud, you literally posted while i was typing.The appropriate response is "letting it heal".
  • edited January 2015
    god i hate my curiosity sometimes. so I looked at the incision site and notice it's reflective. I can see the damn magnet stick out ever so slightly. it was from the paper clip. must've dislodged it. Luckily there's been no swelling or signs of rejection so I sterilized a thin plastic rod, and gentle pressed it pack down. quick clean up with iso and a fresh layer or super glue and then triple anti bac. I hope this doesn't wreck it but at least it can serve as a warning. do not play with these until they are totally healed. luckily the wound is miniscule. magnet wouldn't have fit through the hole. so hopefully this and a bit of care over the next few days and it'll close back up and be happy. if not im screwed, it comes out and i'll have to wait for it to heal. least one of them is healing properly. the wound is totally closed now and stuff but im still keeping it bandaged. i'll give it a couple days to see what happens but this is why you dont smash it on a pan, pull the magnet with a paper clip and generally be an idiot.

  • Well.. I hope it does heal up; however, if it opens up like that after the initial healing phase the type of healing is a little different and the success rate is lower. Honestly, the layer of skin should be totally sealed within three days. You may have lucked out though if the wound is small.
  • remarkably it already is doing better. the wound sealed shut overnight almost entirely and  the tiny bit that isn't closed has a proper little scab on it. i think was screwed this up and prevented it from closing was that it kept getting damaged by one thing or the other. the other one closed in a couple days as it never got damaged. i feel good about it healing properly now. and it did close but got ripped back open by a pan and paper clip
  • edited January 2015
    So i'm not sure what to do. I can see the damn magnet again but the hole is even smaller now. I've aded links to pictures but they make it seem like the magnet is out a lot more than it actually is. Do I keep it covered and see if it heals over? Do I give up? it' in no way painful or swollen, it's just....there. i'm keeping it antibaced and covered but I could really use some advise. the other one has healed beautifully and I added a picture for comparison.
    help :( @cassox any ideas?

  • I have talked to a few people that have had them grow out, and they said it wasn't an unpleasant experience...just a bit odd. One of my team experienced a coating breach, and even that wasn't "terrible".

    It looks good to me, and I have overseen the healing of at least 10 of these things now. That last picture looks fine. Obviously monitor it, but I wouldn't worry. I had a friend that went slightly crazy over this and ended up imagining up symptoms and driving the mod artists nuts with constant phone calls etc. in the end he removed his magnet for no real reason other than he got psyched out. And of course I completely get that, when I had circadia in my arm I had daily panic attacks for the first month.

    Just remember, this is untested and pushing limits, its supposed to be a little scary. :)
  • edited January 2015
    well in that case i'll calm way down then :P if you can put up with circadia i can put up with this. I know my body, i can see the hole slowly closing it's just freaky to see the magnet. of the two this was the one i did first and the incision wasn't nearly as deep. I figure 3 days till that hole closes for good or the magnet will have pushed it's way out fi thats what it's doing so i'll keep up the maintinence and hope for the best then. this is a terrible time to develop hypochondriac tendincies :P

    Edit: thank you. really calmed my nerves.
  • Hoping for the best for you on getting everything healed.  Losing an implant sucks.

    As a quick aside/response to @TimmyCNinja, I've personally found the field from a microwave at my job to feel somehow gross.  Hard to describe, but it's the one field I've found I don't like.  It feels yucky.  Even though I don't like it, I still feel it whenever I get the chance ;)
  • @aviin that is so funny you say that, I had a laptop power brick that had a really weird kind of sputtering field and I used the same word "gross" when I showed it to the other grinders at the the lab, I asked how would you describe this field. They said "sputtery", "Weird","Ugh I don't like that". 

    "Gross?" I asked.

    3 people simultaneously said "Yes".
  • @drjaaz I am glad I could help. That is what community is all about.
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