I have wires and screws in my knee. I don’t feel them in the bone but i can feel them when i run my fingers over my kneecap. Yes it kinda freaks me out
Would the syndemosis issue be a contributing factor causing your fall? If yes, would you have a realistic claim against your insurance company in your jurisdiction?
Here’s mine and thank god for it. It’s been there since 2017. The metal against flesh can be painful at times but I wouldn’t trade it for an inability to walk. I can walk distances, travel and fully participate in life. But I also don’t sit around and work hard to keep myself in shape and use it as much as possible. Custom orthotics and good shoes are critical. It’s become clear if I sit around and don’t use it my foot wants to freeze and get stiff. Staying active is the answer.
Cross post this to r/decks and they’ll let you know if these are Simpson strong ties or some sort of cheap screw with zinc coating that’ll corrode in a few years.
You're not even exaggerating. I used to work in insurance, and some of those reports would have their own mail truck, to deliver one report. And then we'd have to make copies of every page.
It's truly awful, and it's soul crushing work, seeing people gleefully denying necessary lifesaving medical care. Even making jokes about the patients. It took me 3 months to realize it was the job causing me to feel suicidal again.
But unfortunately, the paperwork is necessary to keep everyone accountable.
Plates, screws, & cages in my spine (neck) & former Rad Tech. If they put you in a CT it looks really cool. It makes the image nearly unreadable but it looks neat. 😋 That's why they put us in the MRI if they need to see the area around an implant. As you said it can make it a little fuzzy but it's still readable by the radiologist.
""Ooooh... Marsy-boys. BIONIC BABIES... WOULD YOU EVER REJECT SUCH LEGENDARY ARTIFICE FROM ENTERING YOUR DOMAIN?!? LOOK UPON MY SMOOTH AURAMITE... MY OILED JOINTS. MY WELL-RRRRROUNDED CHASSIS. MY THERMIC REACTOR... PULSATES WITH SMOOTH, VELVETY, BEATS. SKITARII. I WANT TO ENTER YOUR TEMPLE."
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.
I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine.
Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you.
One day the crude biomass that you called a temple will wither and you'll beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal. Even in death i serve the Omnissiah.
Hey, med device engineer who designs plates and screws like this for a living here. You’ll probably never need it , but be sure to ask for and record the manufacturer and lot numbers of your implants. If anything ever goes wrong, you’ll know who to sue.
Generally though the complication rate is pretty low! Good luck next week!
I agree with this completely! I used to do QA on implant screws and one manufacturer sent us a bunch you could break with your fingers. Definitely not what you want holding your foot together. It was a huge headache of having to recheck every screw in inventory.
Hi! 👋 I've got an IM rod in my femur, and one of my screws sheered right in half! My ortho suggested I was maybe too aggressive with my PT. It hasn't really caused me any pain, and everything seemed to heal up fine... But now that I see you mentioning this, I'm wondering if I should reach out and report it to somebody? I never thought twice about it until now. Though it's been several years, and I'm not sure I've got any records of the manufacturer of any of my devices.
Hi, if you’re not in pain theres probably nothing to worry about. Sheered screws dont matter after it heals because the force path goes through your bone now instead of the nail.
Edit: you can likely still request the info from your doctor
Surgical assistant here, I've put these in. The lot numbers and configurations are (should be) recorded in the operative notes. OP should be able to get a copy of the op note and supporting documentation with no issue.
I love how back then $6M on medical procedures meant you were some top secret experimental super cyborg and now it just means you had an appendix removed.
Man that is some epic metal work. I wish you a long life of no pain afterwards.
My mom had rheumatoid arthritis and the joints in her feet got so bad that they removed them and put a pin through the knuckles to hold the toes in place... After a while one of them started working it's way out the side of the bone. It was poking out the bone under the skin and my Dad and Mom came up with an at home surgical removal. My dad took a razor blade to the side of the bump and after cutting the skin, he grabbed the metal rod with a pair of pliers and braced my mom's foot and just pulled the pin straight out. I could tell it hurt my mom, but she let out an exclamation of relief. I only remember the one foot getting it done but I know she had pins in both of her feet.
And people will yell at me when I say Medicare for all. Like I don’t want everyone getting all the free plastic surgery they want, but this is America. Our baseline should be higher than extreme debt or pull out your surgical metal with pliers.
And that Medicare needs to 100% include dental. The fact that dental isn’t included as a necessity is absurd. Teeth aren’t just “cosmetic” and you can absolutely get very ill and even die from tooth problems.
Years ago, my husband had a broken tooth that was slowly dying and just getting worse. He finally got fed up and yanked the whole thing out with a pair of pliers. Apparently it hurt like hell but the relief he felt was worth it. He now finally has appropriate coverage but decades of subpar dental coverage and poor genes means that even after his insurance covers tens of thousands of dollars of needed care, he’s still got years of intensive dental work and thousands of dollars out of pocket ahead of him.
I always get infuriated when I see stories where a like robotics club has to make a motorized wheelchair for a paralyzed kid because his insurance won’t cover it (maybe they’ll only cover a manual wheelchair?).
Star / Torx bits are better for applying high torque, and the bits are less likely to slip out during installation (dangerous) or wear the screw heads (harder to remove later if needed.) These aren’t security Torx (no raised center pin.)
Those look to be standard torx which is both widely used and vastly superior to Philips. If I were having screws put into my foot I would definitely want torx over Philips.
If they wanted to deter self repair they would use something more rare like pentalobe or tri-wing.
One thing to check - make sure the bone screws don't poke out the bottom of the bone into your foot meat. My wife has some pokey screws that are projecting beyond the bone towards the bottom of her foot, and it's made recovery a bit of a pain.
What bone-head (pun intended) didn't check screw-length against the allowable depth?! What is the solution here? Open up from the bottom and grind down? Open up the top again, remove, and replace w/ proper length?
I did, but happy to say again. I had a surgery that went about as badly as it could. Wrong surgery, wrong placement, a long screw placed in the wrong direction. The hardware broke. Have to have the correct surgery and also fix the other surgery and retrieve the hardware. Already had to have an urgent surgery to get the screw out.
If you are traveling through airports, it is a good idea to keep this picture and whatever papers that might come with it in an easy access manner.
Edit: Guys ty for all replies and info, i never had this experience myself or anyone i know so i didn't know, my comment was made purely out benevolent intent, this wasn't an issue actually.
I doubt it’ll be a problem. These look just like the plates I have in my collarbone and I’ve never even set off a metal detector (the security arch kind commonly seen in airports or courthouses). I don’t know how because I’m pretty sure it’s surgical steel (edit: it’s titanium), but it’s been 12 years and I’ve never had a single issue
Just out of curiosity, what was the botched surgery for? Sometimes I think I should have surgery on my toe for something not that big a deal, and then I talk myself out of it because I always think, “I’d be pissed if something went wrong and I was doing it for something so minor…”
"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the Machine is immortal… Even in death I serve the Omnissiah"
Lapidus Procedure correcting a previous bunionectomy with exostectomy? Aka they tried shaving off the bunion, but your genes and foot anatomy had other plans…
Yes, but the original surgeon placed hardware in the wrong spot and the wrong direction. It broke. It’s still in there. Nothing fused. Everything he did was pointless and incorrect.
Aah yes, the joys of failed surgery. My surgeon accidentally cut one of my vocal cords during an aeortic procedure. Whoops!
Shit happens. On the plus side sometimes they guess and do good. My mom had cow bone surgically implanted in her destroyed knee 30+ years ago back when that wasn’t regular. They said she might never walk again but she’s been leading a hiking group for over a decade.
Okay, I'm like, really frigin stupid. I was trying to imagine how doctors were going to get this whole thing into your foot? Like, do you have a skin sock hanging off your ankle or what?? Took scrolling to realize it's just the hardware going in 🙄 I thought the brackets meant your new, clear foot would articulate
Its not exactly 'optimal' compared to the foot most people are born with, but can relieve a lot of pain and improve function from however much it sucked before.
Isn’t that going to take away most of the flexibility of your foot? Are they going to immobilize your foot with a boot afterward or something? Is this going to be taken out later?
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u/Wolf________________ 5h ago
Those suckers gave you the hardware already! You should do it yourself and save yourself $500,000.