bciuser's first implant

edited March 2015 in Procedures
Will update tomorrow. Tired AF. 
Finished a one-week course of amoxycilin ~24 hours prior to implantation.
Day 0: Implant at 1pm
600mg ibuprofin at 5:00pm, 9:00pm
Iced and elevated for 20 minutes at 9:30pm
pics to come.
detail and people words to come.
proper grammar to come.
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  • edited April 2015
    Day 1
    After-Care - - - 
    9:07am: Took 600mg of ibuprofen and iced and elevated implant site for 20 minutes. Rested my finger implant side face down on an ice pack surrounded by a towel to prevent moisture transfer. I laid down and the ice pack was on a pillow which rested on my chest to ensure elevation.
    7:20pm: Took 600mg of ibuprofen for tooth pain.
    10:00pm: Removed steri-strip and replaced with a new one after cleaning around the area with an alcohol pad, then iced and elevated for 20 minutes.

    Subjective Experience - - - 
    I'm avoiding anything magnetic like the plague and not touching the site covered by the steri-strip underneath which is the implant site. Pain in the finger when I woke up was virtually nonexistent except for some occasional tingling. The area appears bruised and is sensitive. 

    Before changing steri-strip:
    image

    After cleaning:
    image

    New steri-strip:
    image
  • edited April 2015
    Day 2:
    After-Care - - - 
    8:30am: Iced and elevated for 20 minutes, steri-strip got a little damp from the condensation. Took 600mg ibuprofen.
    Subjective Experience- - -
    No noticeable pain, just an occasional tingling in the general fingertip area. I wore a nitrile glove into the shower so as not to get the steri-strip wet.

    7:30pm: Took 600mg ibuprofen
    9:30pm: Changed steri-strip and cleaned area with alcohol pad, then iced and elevated for 20 minutes.

    After cleaning: image

    After bandaging:
    image
  • edited April 2015
    Day 3/4
    Same as above, but the incision site and the area around it, while not painful, is still sensitive. @cassox should I be concerned and should I remove my stitches soon? Will post pictures soon.

    image
  • So it's day 6, removed the stitches yesterday and all appeared fine no swelling or obvious infection, but this morning I see a red circle on my finger that appears to be missing a layer of skin or two, where I presume the magnet is. Will post a picture when able. Does this sound like rejection? @glims
  • Looks okay. Mine doesn't have any peeling skin, but the incision and stitch holes look the same.
  • edited April 2015
    Day 7-9 Inflammation has increased a little in the surrounding area and I'm experiencing occasional pain, but the sensitivity of the surrounding tissue is decreasing (in a good way). Very occasional stabbing pain in the general area. Skin is beginning to dry and peel.
    EDIT: I'm almost certain the pain was being caused by my bandage being wrapped too tight, it was getting pretty bad so I loosened the band-aid and now I'm back to no pain, even intermittently.
    image
  • Sounds normal. If the inflammation keeps up, Ibuprofen. Ice BID definitely.
  • edited April 2015
    So I got brave while I was heating up a can of chef boyardee (terrible ravioli I'm sorry) and did the microwave thing. It was pretty fun and then painful afterwards. Ice is nice. Also today put a staple near the bandage and it stuck to the outside of the bandage. This is actually SUPER entertaining.
  • Danger, Will Robinson.
  • Also shout out to @Cassox for doing an excellent job on the implant and just being an all-around badass.
  • edited April 2015
    Day 10: Nothing interesting to mention, washing with saline solution and changing bandage once per day.
    image
     
    Day 11: At this point I'm starting to have a lot of fun and notice things more easily, I can tell whether or not current is flowing through the cord in my laptop charger and my roommate's hair dryer. Also starting to become more sensitive to ferromagnetic materials like the magnet in my mac that holds the charger firmly in place (that one hurt a little afterwards, think I'm going to avoid it for the time being). Also, I would like to mention a little on the nature of the feeling I'm experiencing: it feels very little like the sensation we normally associate with touch. It feels almost entirely foreign, but detectable. Also I'm able now to feel the magnets present in my laptop. Fortunately not while I am typing, because that would be something of an annoyance, but I will say on my Macbook Pro there are some pretty powerful magnets near the lower half of the built-in speakers. Later in the day my finger started to feel itchy and irritated so I stopped playing with it.
    image
  • edited April 2015
    Day 12: Inflammation has gone down a lot since yesterday, although I've noticed it's generally better in the morning. I think (hope) it will continue to heal up nicely. Washing with saline and changing the bandage once per day, and that is the full extent of the after-care I am currently doing. Sensitivity is continuing to increase, I'm now able to feel magnets in my phone I wasn't able to before and I'm getting better at discriminating noise from actual sensation (maybe there is just less inflammation, less noise). 
    image
  • edited April 2015
    Day 13: The area is a little more red, but I might just have hit it in my sleep. Continuing to wash with saline and change bandage daily, just waiting for the scab to fall off. I did a ton of exercise today and by the end of the day my finger felt a little hot, so I iced it.
    image
  • Day 14: Seems pretty much the same as yesterday, nothing terribly interesting.
    image
  • edited April 2015
    Day 15: So everything normal except for this one thing: There is a new small white ring of skin around where the magnet has been implanted. Are the edges causing the skin to not get enough oxygen? Or is it something else? Regardless, should I be concerned and does the magnet need to be excised? @Glims @Cassox
    image

    Edit: It has actually not gone away, and the area the magnet rests has become a little more red, and the white circle a little more pronounced:
    image
  • It looks to me like it's staying too damp. I'd leave off the band aid. Are you out of steristrips?
  • edited April 2015
    Yep. I'll leave off the band-aid and just be reaaaal careful, and purchase some steri strips later today.
  • edited April 2015
    Day 16: So it looks about the same as yesterday, I've been keeping it dry and without a band-aid and without too much interaction with the outside world. No real pain is being felt in the area, and the scab is getting ready to come off.
    EDIT: Something else I thought I might mention is the skin directly on top of the magnet is less sensitive to sensation than normal, and the tissue directly around the magnet is slightly darker in color than the skin around it.
    image

  • The loss of sensitivity is normal, after all small nerves where cutted while implanting (you can't do anything against that as there are just way to many nerves) but don't worry, it should get re-routed / grow back after some time and then not only the skin sensitivity should get back to normal but also the magnetic sensations should get stronger. ;)
  • Ok, so day 20 and it looks different. The white area around the magnet is definitely expanding, and for whatever reason the scab is refusing to come off. Not sure if this is cause for concern yet, but I'm hoping some healing I'm not able to see is going on in the background.
    image
  • Is the area inside that white ring raised? And please tell me you haven't tried to remove the scab. One possibility is that that white ring is just internal scar tissue, forming as the pocket finishes healing. 
  • Yes, the area inside the white ring is raised and has been since the day I got the implant. I have not tried to remove the scab, and will not try to remove it, I plan on letting it fall off on its own time.
  • I'm so interested in what is going to happen. Sorry, dude. I should totally be worried about your finger meats, but I'm just interested in how this is gonna go down. White ring is a new rxn. Thank you documenting it :D
  • edited April 2015
    >< I'm also interested in how this is gonna go down. I wouldn't be too concerned about the finger, it's never done shit for me. If I start seeing necrosis, red lines, or weird pain I'm cutting the thing out. xD I'll continue taking photos. It actually looks similar to spiltwine's after his rejected, but mine is still in there... his thread
  • Lol. I'm pretty sure your in the clear on this one. The white will progress to flaking and sloughing. You'll have shiny pink new skin beneath.
  • edited April 2015
    So a cool experience I had today I just wanted to share. I have a chemistry lab class, and today we were conducting a reaction that involved a magnetic stir bar. However, the solution was extremely cloudy and we were unable to tell if the hot plate was actually moving the stir bar. Enter me with my new implant "yup, there is DEFINITELY a moving magnetic field there". Felt pretty damn cool. For those of you who haven't taken chemistry lab, the stir bars are a pain in the ass to remove. After the reaction was complete, I proceeded to push my finger against the outside of the glass, and used my magnet to coax the stir bar out. I am amazed it has actually been useful twice in one day.
  • Sweet use! I did chem for years and never even thought of bar removal.
  • edited April 2015
    So day 23 now I believe, here is a photo of what the site currently looks like. The scab still hasn't fallen off, and the white circle has expanded both inward and outward. Most of the white skin has either little or no sensation, and the area is a little itchy. The skin isn't dry or flaky as of yet and the white area is rapidly expanding today.
    image

    What it looks like now later in the day:
    image
  • Did there seen to be any swelling or fluid present?
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