Impressions of a Bio-Thermo Implantation

edited February 2015 in RFID/NFC
This evening I implanted a bio-thermo chip in my left forearm.  With the arm lying flat with my palm up, the chip rests parallel to the palmaris longus tendon about four millimeters to the right of it and at about the same depth as said tendon.  It's in the neighborhood of seven or eight centimeters from the hand.  It was implanted using the included injector.  No anesthesia.  No stitches, steristrips, dermabond, etc.  Just a basic band-aid.

In the interest of spreading information and expanding our knowledge base, here are my impressions of the process.
  • I examined numerous diagrams of the blood vessels, nerves, musculature, tendons, and ligaments of the area as well as read a fair bit of medical material before I proceeded.  I'd like to be very clear in saying that there's a ton of stuff going on in that area of the body and I'd rate the risk of unintended damage to the arm to be somewhat higher than I really wished it was.  I would not recommend implanting a chip in this area of the body.  Then again, I'm no expert and have no medical background whatsoever.
  • I bent my wrist in every way I could before settling on this exact point to be sure there would be no pinching of the site when the wrist is moved.
  • I examined the arm and identified the locations of the various veins visible through the skin to make sure I wasn't going to rupture them and then marked the injection site as well as marked the point I wanted the chip to rest at using a Sharpie.
  • Tenting of the skin as per standard RFID implantation technique wasn't yielding satisfactory results as the skin here has much less elasticity and looseness than the "triangle" of the hand.  The friend tenting the skin up just couldn't seem to pull it up in a way that made me happy so I had to improvise.  I made a loop of duct tape and pressed it firmly against the skin slightly closer to the hand than my intended injection site (so as to avoid having to pierce the tape with the needle).  I had my assistant grab the tape and pull gently upward which lifted the skin up as well and made a very nice "tent".  This is a technique that I can see myself using again as it worked perfectly.
  • The injector style of these chips is not nearly so nice as the one that came with my xNT chip.  It is functional, though.
  • The pain of piercing the skin was very minor.  Very comparable to an RFID hand injection as far as that goes.
  • Once the needle had broken through the skin, I had my assistant slowly pull the tape slightly harder to peel it off of the skin entirely before continuing to push the needle in.
  • The needle did not move quite as freely through the tissue as my hand RFID implantation, but only slightly so.
  • Once I had the needle at the full depth, I slowly backed it out while pushing the injector's plunger (standard RFID technique).
  • Backing the needle out hurt more than pushing it in, but still nothing too shocking.
  • Once the needle was out, it was followed quickly by a fair bit of blood.  I applied pressure with sterile gauze for a minute or two then slapped a band-aid on it.
  • The area immediately around the implantation site swelled up a fair bit over the next few minutes, but now, six hours or so later, the swelling has almost entirely disappeared.
  • For the first couple hours after, I noticed a strange wet feeling in my wrist.  It genuinely felt like there was a cool liquid inside my wrist.  I was concerned that it might actually be liquid (i.e. internal bleeding) but no bruise appeared and the wet feeling is now entirely gone.
  • As to bruising, as of this moment, there is none at all, which is unexpected as my hand bruised quite alot after the xNT injection.
  • There is some pain in the area as of right now, but nothing severe.  I've not taken even ibuprofen for it as it is not that bad.  The vast majority of pain from the procedure was caused by the tape being pulled off (which pulled out hair) and by pulling off the band-aid to look at it before I started typing this post :)
I acquired the chip from @AlexSmith (formerly @AmmonRa) (again, thanks!).  He sent it in a nice little kit form that was very reminiscent of the xNTi kit that @Amal sells.  Basically, everything you need to do an implantation from start to finish (minus the duct tape :P).  When his web store goes live, I suspect we're all going to be getting some new toys.

I wish I could talk about how well the chip works, but I don't have a reader yet.  They can be had for about US$100 but I just haven't gotten around to ordering one.  Anything I get will be temporary as I intend to get the one @AlexSmith is designing when it's ready.

Because I did this tonight, I've decided to hold off on the fourth m31 implant that I was going to do today, but in a week or so I'll be doing it.

I hope some of you find this information at least somewhat useful.  I'll post an update on how it's healing in a few days and once I get the reader, I'll be sure to talk about the chip's functionality, too.
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Comments

  • edited December 2014
    It has been six days so it's time for that promised update.

    On the second day, a very light amount of bruising in the area became visible in about a one inch diameter around the implant site.  It was mostly yellowish in color similar to how a nearly healed bruise looks.  It disappeared the following day.  There was some minor pain around the site for a couple days, but never so bad that I felt a need for painkillers.

    As of this moment, the implant site has a very tiny depression in the skin with a miniscule scab.  Other than that, the area looks fully healed and healthy.  The chip seems to have not shifted at all from where I placed it, likely at least partly due to Destron Fearing's "BioBond" cap.  There is a tiny amount of tenderness when I put pressure directly on the chip, but I suspect that will recede in due course.  Running a finger across the site, the impression I get is identical to how the tendon it rests near moves; some flexibility to where it runs but it springs back immediately to its "home" site the moment I let off it.  It causes no interference with movement of the wrist joint, twisting of the arm, etc.

    I am ordering one of the Micro-ID "Halo" scanners immediately after I click "Post Comment" here so I'll have information on functionality within two weeks.  I will post another update then.

    * EDIT * - Ordered the reader.  Best price I found quickly was directly from the manufacturer's site at http://microidglobal.com.  I got it with the case because, well, just because :P.  US$108 and some change at the current exchange rate for U.S. dollars to British pounds.  Micro-ID also sells the readers through an eBay store for about $30 more for whatever reason.
  • Keep a weather eye on your phone. I don't know where you are located, but here in Cali, my bank needed to confirm that I had actually made that purchase, cause it was so abnormal.
  • PayPal has locked down my account a few times for "suspicious" transactions that were legitimate, but at this point, I've bought enough odd things from various corners of the world and paid in a dozen or so different currencies that they don't tend to get suspicious of my buying habits anymore.  I suppose that's maybe not such a good thing...

    As a related aside, magnetic implants have no detectable interaction with JSC-1A lunar mare regolith simulant nor with JSC MARS-1A Martian regolith simulant.  Chemically, I knew they wouldn't, but because I tend to have odd things lying around, I had to give it a go.  So the good news is, if you're ever on the Moon or Mars without a spacesuit, at least the dust won't stick to your fingers anymore than the stuff already tends to :P.
  • Update time...

    First I'll talk healing.  The implant site is, for all intents, fully healed.  No pain whatsoever.  There is a small mark that denotes the piercing site, but as I've gotten pretty decent with chip needles, the scar is very small.  This chip is very firmly bound to its implant site, far more so than the xNT in my hand.

    Now for the reader.  The Halo scanner is a decent piece of hardware.  Lightweight.  Simplistic but functional.  Read range for the chip is in the neighborhood of five inches.  Very pleasant compared with trying to get an Android phone to interact with the xNT.

    But now some bad news.  The temperature readings I get from the chip vary wildly dependent on the temperature of the environment I've been in.  Last week here in Great Lakes region of the U.S., it was far below freezing.  Ten minutes out in that and the chip reads 3°C lower than what the chip reads at in room temperature, this even having had a coat on.  An hour spent in a vehicle with the heat on and it can read 5°C higher than the norm.  In other words, I've seen as much as an 8°C swing dependent on where I've been.  Apparently, the temperature of one's arm, at least at the depth the chip sits, can shift quite alot based on environmental temperature.  This placement of the chip will only yield useful results if one consistently remains in a stable temperature environment.  Oh, and for the record, the typical reading I'm seeing from "true" in my home is about 4°C low.

    So this has had me thinking.  Why are these chips considered so accurate in animals but, at least for me, varying so much in temperature readings when in a human?  My conclusion is twofold.  Firstly, best placement locations have been determined for most common "pet" species in advance, likely through trial and error combined with a little knowledge.  Secondly, the animals these chips were designed for have fur coats, which likely stabilizes the temperature of the underlying tissue quite alot.

    This has me thinking about a better location.  What part of the human body that isn't deep inside the flesh likely has a stable temperature and isn't exposed to bending/pinching?  Well, the brain needs a stable temperature, right?  So the head.  Obviously, I can't inject a chip anywhere inside my skull without major medical assistance.  But there's the scalp.  Blood flow through the scalp is pretty major (thus why head wounds bleed so much) which should keep the temperature more stable, the head simply requires that stability in temperature so I'd likely find it stable there, and there's hair to buffer wind and temperature loss like the fur coat of other species.

    So I'm envisioning a second biotherm implant, this time placed horizontally above the left ear.  I've not yet looked into the anatomy of the area, so this might be a no-go once I do some research, but what I foresee right now is shaving the area clean of hair, using my duct tape method for tenting the skin, and placing the chip there.  Beyond the anatomical feasibility of this placement insofar as nerves and blood vessels go, I've got a concern I'd like to share and illicit a response about.  How likely am I to do damage to the hair follicles in the location?  I expect some permanent damage to the follicles directly at the point of penetration, but would I cause damage to the follicles above the entire needle channel and produce a small stripe devoid of hair?

    Above and beyond the medical concerns, how f'ing cool would it be to have a chip in your head?
  • There is accuracy and then there is consistency. Accuracy - being able to directly read out your actual core temperature from the chip - is not something you can hope for, but as long as you have consistency you can use the delta and calculate core temp. For example, if you can say that the biotherm chip is always within a very stable offset of 4 degrees from core temperature, then you can easily correct for the offset and always get a pretty reliable assessment of core temperature.

    That said, I would suggest in the armpit to be honest. You can get a pretty accurate core temp reading by placing a thermometer under your armpit for a minute or so, and I think the same could be said for the biotherm chip. It could go in skin just to the side of the crease, not directly "in" the armpit, but somewhere directly next to it, either on the arm side or the torso side of the "pit". Raise your arm, take a reading. This location doesn't really lend itself to using the chip for access control or other types of ID based applications, but it should get you a fairly consistent temp reading.

    BTW we are selling biotherms now at www.dangerousthings.com/shop/xbti
  • I'd considered that location already.  I am somewhat concerned about how much movement there is in all of the tissue in that entire area.  That having been said, it might be worth trying.  You wouldn't need to even raise the arm to take a reading; the range of the reader I have (the Halo reader) is more than enough to read it regardless of how the arm would be oriented.
  • amal for extremities, e.g. arms, legs, there is no consist delta, the temperature that close to the skin varies a lot based on the environment. As far as I know, no one has tried an armpit placement, have you?


  • edited March 2015
    So I have been wanting to implant the bio-thermo chip for awhile now, the only thing stopping me is placement. I was waiting for someone to test the armpit, but then the other day I thought of a new location: the inside of your lip. These chips are smaller than the RFID chips we have been putting in our hands (if i remember correctly) so they would have a better chance of fitting inside the lip, and the mouth is a good spot to always get an accurate temperature reading (unless you just drank some water). 

    Does anyone think this would work? When I say inside the lip I'm talking more about the bottom of your lip like under the gum where it wouldn't really be noticeable. 
  • edited March 2015
    These chips are 2mm x 12mm, same as most of the chips being used around here.  One notable exception is the new reprogrammable chip that @AlexSmith is offering, but it's not a bio-thermo chip.

    There is at least one other bio-thermo type of chip (the IPTT-300 from BMDS) but it's even larger at 2mm x 14mm.  I'd love to get my hands on one (or get one in my hands, haha) and find out if any reader other than theirs can read it (their scanner is over $3000).  They sell the chips for roughly $10 a piece but the minimum order is 100 chips (with injectors).

    Well, there's a third chip, too, that's got temperature.  HomeAgain Tempscan chips.  Sound pretty similar to the Destron Fearing one I have (i.e. the chip that DangerousThings and Cyberise.me sell) but running at 125 kHz instead of 134.2 kHz.
  • edited March 2015
    After I posted, I really started wanting to try @Amal's armpit location idea.  I've just ordered a second chip and will implant in the armpit area as soon as it arrives.  And, of course, I'll post back here when I get it done.

    If someone beats me to implanting in that location, maybe I'll try another spot.  Or you can all let me be the armpit guinea pig :).
  • Why don't you guys implant them in your anus. :)
  • My first thought for a better implant site was under the tongue. Granted it will be kinda awkward scanning it but I would imagine with the exception of just recently having some hot coffee or a cold slurpee, it would give a more accurate reading.
  • I like the tongue idea, but I am somewhat concerned about a chip that size being implanted into tissue that will be flexed so often in such a wide variety of directions.  If the armpit tag doesn't produce good results, I will consider trying it.

    As for the armpit implant, it will be implanted tonight!  Will post back with results and comparisons.
  • Taking a different approach to documenting this implant.  I'm typing this just a moment before I disinfect the area.  I've just showered and thoroughly scrubbed the armpit in question to remove any antiperspirant/deodorant residue.  Left armpit area.  I've decided to go just below where the armpit hair grows on the truck of the body.  Maybe 3 1/2 to 4 inches below the deepest part of the armpit (sorry to not use metric, but the Imperial system is my "native tongue" as it were).  I've decided on this spot because it is close to the armpit, doesn't flex a bunch while moving, and when the arm is down at my side, the chip has inches of tissue on all sides, which, I hope, will lead to readings more consistent with core temperature as well as being less prone to fluctuation based on ambient temperature.  At this moment I have the now familiar excited/slightly jittery feeling I get before implanting something.  If you count my first four "all at once" m31 (ultimately botched) attempts, would you believe this will be the 12th time I've attempted an implant on myself?  Crazy...  Anyway, I've got some concerns about antiperspirant irritating the implant site, but since I do physical labor I've no choice but to use it regardless.  I'm hoping that keeping it bandaged will mitigate some of that irritation.  RFID implants heal so quickly that it won't be an issue for more than a few days regardless.  This will be a solo operation (By the way, don't do things like this solo.  Like, really, don't.  It's not wise.  If something goes wrong, you may need help.  I'm being very serious here.  I'm a complete idiot for not having someone else with me every time I do an implant.)

    Enough of all that.  The moment is here.  I will continue this (all in one post) in a few moments...

    Okay.  Back at the keyboard now.  The chip is in.  It was harder to do than I anticipated because of the awkwardness of the angles involved.  I assumed I'd be able to tent the skin with my left hand while I injected with my right.  Turns out the grip I could get at that angle was not very good at all.  Try as I might, the skin would slip from between my fingers as I began to exert pressure with the needle.  I tried a few times but couldn't do more than barely penetrate the skin before I would lose my grip.  So I had to resort to, well, more extreme measures...

    I scrubbed a pair of needle-nosed pliers with soap and water, dried them with some sterile gauze, soaked them in chlorhexidine glucanate for 10 minutes or so, then rinsed them with saline.  I then used them in my left hand to grip the skin.  And the skin still slipped out of even the pliers as I exerted force on the needle.  So I gripped REALLY hard with the pliers, tented the skin up, then inserted the needle horizontally to its full depth, backed it out a bit, injected, then removed the needle.  The pliers bruised the skin, as I was expecting at that point, but no big deal.  Bleeding was average for an RFID implant (this is my 4th, so I've got some experience) and the pain was less than that of the pliers holding the skin :).  To be completely honest, this location seems to be less sensitive to pain than any other location I've implanted in.  Retracting the needle did not hurt at all, while usually that's the most painful part for me.  I bandaged it with gauze and tape (which I managed to get stuck into my armpit hair, so that'll be lovely to remove in the morning).

    All that was maybe 15 minutes ago.  I did take my temperature orally about an hour before I started this post (the thermometer claims an accuracy of within 0.2° F, and got a reading of exactly 98.6° F three times in a row (wish it would show me °C natively, but converting shows that to be 37.0°C).  From here on, I will convert to Celsius for each reading from the oral thermometer.

    As of this moment, the oral thermometer is telling me 36.5°C, the forearm chip is 34.1°C, and the armpit chip is (drum roll please) 36.2°C.  Admittedly, the area is surely elevated in temperature because of the "injury" to the area, but the result has me ecstatic.  I will continue adding updates (at least one more tonight and multiple tomorrow).  I'm hoping for a consistent offset from the oral temperature reading regardless of activity and ambient temperature tomorrow.  We'll see...

    At this early moment, I'm feeling like we may have a winner.


  • edited April 2015
    Because I'm excited about this right now, I'm going to talk a bit more.  I did sort of cheat and take readings off the chip repeatedly in the moments after implantation.  It was neat to watch the readings rise over the course of a few moments to match my body temperature.  It'll never read that low again until I either remove it or die.  For some reason, that's pretty cool, I think.  I expected my temperature taken orally to spike from the (admittedly limited) stress of implanting, but that didn't happen at all (I actually took my temperature orally the first time after implanting all of thirty seconds out, before it would have a chance to settle back down and it didn't move at all, and as you saw, actually dropped a little bit moments after the deed was done).

    A half hour out from implantation, the new implant's still reading a steady 36.2°C (right now the forearm implant is reading 33.9°C for reference).

    Interestingly, this chip's ID number is less than a hundred off from my first bio-thermo chip despite being from a different supplier.  I feel loathe to share the actual ID numbers on any of my chips.  Here in 2015, it wouldn't let anyone do much of anything, but who knows about the future, right?

    Some small pain in the area right now.  Nothing severe and I suspect its mostly from the pinching of the pliers.

    The chip is deeper in the tissue than I intended, but that's actually beneficial, I think, so long as it doesn't reject because of it.  It ultimately sits slightly further down my side than I originally envisioned, but not very much further.  Maybe five inches or so from the deepest part of the armpit.

    I'm babbling on for no reason so I'll stop now.  I will post all three temp readings again in a few hours, then again in the morning.
  • aviin That's pretty cool, you are a badass for going through with a self implants like that, do keep us posted with details. 
  • edited April 2015
    @AlexSmith - Thanks!  And of course I'll be keeping everyone posted!

    Temp readings before I lay down for the night.

    Oral is 36.3°C, forearm is 34.0°C, armpit is 36.0°C.  The variance between the oral reading and the armpit chip is still 0.3°C.  Results are very nice so far, but do keep in mind that I've not left the building I am in and the ambient temperature here has been fairly stable this entire time.  In a stable environment, the forearm chip keeps a fairly standard offset, but out in the weather, it jumps around.  Readings throughout the day tomorrow will be more telling, as I will be in and out of buildings and vehicles all day and the ambient temperatures I'm exposed to will vary quite a bit.

    Might as well mention that I'm in no pain at all right now, so that little bit I had earlier was fleeting.

    I'll post results from throughout the day tomorrow sometime in the evening Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

    Oh, and thanks to @Amal for the suggestion as to location!
  • Just woke up.  Feeling cold.

    Oral temp is 35.56°C, forearm is 33.3°C, armpit is 34.9°C.  Larger offset than last night.  I awoke with the arm positioned such that it was not at my side covering the chip, so that has something to do with it, I'd think, and the area is maybe less irritated this morning?

    Frankly, I'm too tired right now to think too much on it.  Going to lay back down for a bit then will have to work, so no more posts until tonight, sadly.
  • edited April 2015
    @Aviin I have just ordered a bio thermo tag (for $18.00 what a deal! From http://www.sagebrushtags.com/product/BTLC) because of your success with implantation in the armpit. Hopefully you continue to get accurate readings I will be checking this thread for updates daily. Best of luck to you and way to step up and be the first to try implanting in the armpit!

    *Edit*
    @Aviin where did you get your reader? The only ones I have found are $350+. Is there no other cheaper readers on the market? If not, is it possible that the NFC tools app could some day be able to read temperatures off the tag? From my understanding you don't need different hardware to read the temperature, but I could be wrong ( and probably am considering the hefty price on the readers available).
  • edited April 2015
    @louisville13 - Got this one from the same supplier.  Fantastic price, but you're getting the chip and injector assembly only.  The chips from Dangerous Things and Cyberise.me include all the extras (gloves, chloraprep, etc.) for a more complete implantation solution.  The reader I'm using is talked about in my second post in this thread.  The Halo reader.  Cheaper if you get it from their website than from their eBay store, by the way, at least when I got mine.  Smartphones will not read this chip at all due to the entirely different operating frequency.  Glad others are finding this data useful.  And on that subject...

    Here are ten consecutive hours of readings from the oral thermometer, forearm chip, and armpit chip.  I'll talk a little about my interpretation of this data afterward.

    10 a.m. - Oral: 35.9°C - Forearm: 32.7°C - Armpit: 35.6°C
    11 a.m. - Oral: 36.1°C - Forearm: 31.0°C - Armpit: 35.8°C
    12 p.m. - Oral: 36.4°C - Forearm: 29.7°C - Armpit: 35.6°C
    1 p.m. - Oral: 36.4°C - Forearm: 31.4°C - Armpit: 35.7°C
    2 p.m. - Oral: 36.9°C - Forearm: 32.5°C - Armpit: 35.7°C
    3 p.m. - Oral: 36.4°C - Forearm: 33.1°C - Armpit: 36.2°C
    4 p.m. - Oral: 36.8°C - Forearm: 34.1°C - Armpit: 35.9°C
    5 p.m. - Oral: 36.0°C - Forearm: 33.1°C - Armpit: 35.8°C
    6 p.m. - Oral: 36.1°C - Forearm: 32.9°C - Armpit: 35.9°C
    7 p.m. - Oral: 36.7°C - Forearm: 33.6°C - Armpit: 36.1°C

    A couple of things jump out at me here.   Firstly, either I can't use this oral thermometer correctly (it admittedly was difficult considering I had to do this while working), it isn't very accurate despite the package's claims, or else my temperature was bouncing around a fair bit.

    Secondly, the forearm chip varied by quite a bit over the course of the 10 hours and I experienced no extremes of ambient temperature during that time, but I was both indoors and outdoors throughout the course of the day (lower readings occurred after I'd been outside for a bit).

    Thirdly, the armpit chip is far more consistent in readings than the oral thermometer or the forearm chip.  The fluctuations seem well within what would be considered normal throughout the course of the day.

    Scanning is super fast, super easy, leaves no room for user error (unlike the oral thermometer), and seems less affected by ambient temperatures than either other method.

    I will repeat this tomorrow and provide another data set.  All in all, I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing.

    Quick note on the implant site itself.  It is a little sore and a little bruised, but both are minor.  The wound is essentially closed.  Antiperspirant did not seem to irritate it at all.  I had more irritation from the tape for the bandage than anything else.

    Thoughts or observations, anyone?

    (By the way, don't try to use the html <table> tags on this forum.  The preview will look right but it will lose all formatting when you actually post it.)

  • @Aviin Could you post a pic of the implant site? I want to make sure I implant in the right place.
  • @louisville13, there is no "right place" yet.  Mine is located, height-wise, slightly higher than the nipple, but dead center on the side of my body, just below where the armpit hair grows.  The chip rests horizontally rather than vertically in my side.  Vertically might be a better choice, but would be harder to do solo because of the angle involved.

    The higher up it is (i.e. closer to the actual shoulder joint), the more consistent the readings will be, I suspect, but you a) don't want to rupture a lymph node (there are multiples in the armpit), b) don't want to rupture a vein (I was able to visually see several in the area) or artery (nearly impossible to see, sadly), or c) damage major hair follicles (just intuition on that part; I could be wrong).  And that's saying nothing of nerve damage.

    Like all implants, you are taking a risk in doing this, and that risk is larger than normal because, well, as of this moment, I think I'm the only person on Earth to have placed a chip in the area and for all I know, I got lucky in not damaging myself in a big way.  There are those of us who can come off appearing nonchalant about doing this stuff, but it really is a risky endeavor.  I take risks that I would not recommend anyone take.  Implanting should never be lightly considered.  I apologize for maybe coming off as abrasive when I say stuff like this, but it would break my heart if someone got hurt doing something just because it came out okay for me.  I really don't want to sound like I'm lecturing (who am I to do something like this and then turn around and tell someone else not to?), but I just don't want to see someone get hurt.

    Jeez, I sound like a hypocrite.  Sorry about that.

    Assuming I haven't turned you off to trying this, make sure you look at some anatomy data on the area before you proceed to identify the probable locations of "hidden" structures that you could potentially damage.  Examine yourself in a mirror and look for veins and whatnot so you know areas to avoid.  Flex your arm around and twist your body, watching to see how the tissue moves.  Doing these things helps locate "sweet spots" where there's little movement and no major anatomical structures.  There are anatomical variations in humans, so a spot that works for me might not work for you, especially when you consider that even the major veins and arteries show variations amongst humans.

    Oh, and I really hate calling it an armpit chip.  I'm switching to the better-sounding "axillary chip" (the axilla being the medical term for the armpit).  That name prevents me from giggling like a five year old when I say it. :)


  • I just got my magnet, but this thermal chip is quickly becoming the second thing on my wishlist.
  • edited April 2015
    @FrankMatheson - I'm glad I have mine.  I'm not going to say that it's useful, exactly, but the next time I feel like I might be getting sick, I know that I'll be going to the chip for some data.  And it is cool.  Today my supervisor at work said only half jokingly that he'd like to get them implanted in his kids.  Chipping children would spark an enormous ethical debate, I'm sure, but the fact that my implants got someone else thinking about these types of things is nothing but positive.

    Here's today's data set.  This time it's eleven consecutive hours.  Peruse and, um, enjoy...  I guess?

    9 a.m. - Oral: 36.3°C - Forearm: 32.0°C - Axillary: 35.7°C
    10 a.m. - Oral: 36.5°C - Forearm: 32.0°C - Axillary: 35.8°C
    11 a.m. - Oral: 36.7°C - Forearm: 31.5°C - Axillary: 35.6°C
    12 p.m. - Oral: 36.4°C - Forearm: 31.7°C - Axillary: 35.7°C
    1 p.m. - Oral: 36.5°C - Forearm: 31.5°C - Axillary: 35.5°C
    2 p.m. - Oral: 36.4°C - Forearm: 32.2°C - Axillary: 35.3°C
    3 p.m. - Oral: 36.3°C - Forearm: 32.7°C - Axillary: 35.7°C
    4 p.m. - Oral: 36.5°C - Forearm: 32.4°C - Axillary: 35.9°C
    5 p.m. - Oral: 36.1°C - Forearm: 32.9°C - Axillary: 35.7°C
    6 p.m. - Oral: 36.6°C - Forearm: 37.3°C - Axillary: 35.6°C
    7 p.m. - Oral: 36.3°C - Forearm: 32.9°C - Axillary: 35.8°C

    Overall, I was in much more consistent ambient temperatures today, so even the forearm chip performed pretty well.  Notice, though, the 6 p.m. reading.  I'd been a car with the heat running when those values were taken.  It threw the forearm chip off quite alot while the axillary chip was unaffected.  Neat.

    The implant site is a bit more sore today than yesterday.  Still nothing requiring pain medication, but it is a little tender.  The initial redness of the area is entirely gone and the bruise is looking more "mature", I guess.  Nothing that I am at all concerned about in the site.

    As I find that I am enjoying logging these readings, I will continue to do so, at least for tomorrow.  After that, we'll see.  So anyway, expect another data set tomorrow evening.

    I would like to take a second to talk a bit more about the Halo reader.  It's a simple one button operation device.  Press the button, get the reader within five or six inches of the chip, and it reads it.  The read time is, for all practical purposes, instant.  Nothing like reading an NFC tag with a cell phone, for example.  I have on a couple of occasions accidentally scanned the forearm chip when I intended to read the axillary chip if I'm careless in how I approach the axillary chip (if I end up getting too close to the forearm chip first) or if I try to use the reader with my left hand instead of my right (it will even occasionally read the forearm chip the second I press the button while holding the reader in my left hand).  Assuming that most people would never have two of these chips so close together, it shouldn't be an issue for anyone but myself, and even for me it only happens rarely and is obvious when it happens because the unit beeps when it reads the chip and displays the tag ID along with the temperature reading.  Oh, and regarding charging the reader, I have charged it only twice since I bought it.  Once when it arrived and again yesterday morning (the unit never died but it did give me a low battery warning).  Charging can be done with the included USB cord (mini USB) on a Windows PC (I do not know about Linux or Mac) without installing drivers or software.  I should probably check out the included software, now that I think about it...

    Another wall of text for you all.  Enjoy :)
  • And because charts make everything better...

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    In case anyone is interested, the charts were made at ChartGo.
  • Another 10 consecutive hour data set for those who might be interested.  I do not know if I'll do another unless someone wants me to.

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    The pain I had yesterday is almost entirely gone.  Healing is proceeding very well with the bruise already beginning to fade and the wound completely closed, oddly without even a scab visible.
  • I would love another. Data is kewl, yo.
  • Concerning the incision point, I've been looking at other transaxillary procedures and I happened upon a picture from breast augmentation that should shed some light on where the safe zone is.

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    Seems the very top of the armpit pocket is free of lymph nodes and major blood vessels.

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  • Just decided to rotate my shoulder around its full range of motion while holding a finger in the spot indicated in your first posted pic to see what sort of movement seems to be happening there.

    I would be concerned with it causing discomfort there with some of the possible arm movements.  There's a pressure threshold where an implanted chip, because of it's rounded end, can feel like it's forcing its way between the tissue layers, causing some pain.  It takes the right amount of pressure almost directly on the end of the chip to make it feel like it's getting pushed through the tissue, but I've twice had it happen with my xNT chip in my hand, resulting in minor bruising in the area that it felt like the chip was being forced into.  I would be concerned that considering the huge range of motion in the shoulder, being so close to the joint could cause similar types of damage to happen during some arm motions.  It almost certainly wouldn't be enough to damage the chip itself, of course.  But if it does end up causing pain, these chips, at least if you aren't going to remove the BioBond cap prior to implantation (I opted not to remove it for both of mine), will be tougher to remove than the other implantable chips people are using.

    The area would yield even more reliable data, though, or at least I suspect it would.  If someone wants to give it a try, I'd love to see the results, both in potential discomfort as well as temperature data.

    Regarding more charts, I'll do more of them since at least one person is interested.  None for tomorrow, though, as I've got the obligatory Easter dinner to attend with family.  Since they've been far less supportive of my implants than I'd wish (that is to say that they're extremely displeased with my interest in them), constantly monitoring my temperature while I'm there would not go over well.  But I'll be back at recording values on Monday.  I really do enjoy having an implant that produces quantifiable data.  The fact that the graphs I've made are even possible pleases me to no end.

    I originally had written a large paragraph here with another potential implant site, but it's just too dangerous.  I don't even want to mention it, I've decided, for fear that someone might attempt it.  I would like to test at least one more implant site for these chips, though.  Other than the tongue (I've decided the chip is just too large for that), does anyone have any other practical implant sites that might yield reliable data?
  • I think armpit is probably the most reliable spot on the body because it's as medial as you're gonna get without cutting into your chest or belly, it's a tried-and-true medical place to measure temperature, and if you look at diagrams of blood vessels on the body, it's got one of the smallest concentrations. The only other spots suitable, but likely too difficult or dangerous, are the cheek, the inner thigh, and the love handle. I'd pick these places because they're close to medial, remain relatively closed to outside temperature, and have enough meat to hold an implant (cheek is borderline). However, I think cheek is a bad plan because the mouth is pretty important and easy to mess up, thigh is bad because of all the blood vessels, and love handle is bad because it's got too much movement.

    TL;DR I vote armpit.
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