I seem to have developed a slight runny nose and cough, precipitated by incessant symptoms of dehydration (chapped lips, dry mouth, heavy thirst) despite increased water intake over the last three days.
I have no temperature and only a slight scratchy throat; I’m not coughing up sputum nor do I have any joint pain, muscle aches, or other problematic indicators.
The wound site continues to heal well and is healthy and as pink as my pale skin usually is; certainly no discharge, necrosis, odor, or any indication of infection. I’m going to chalk my symptoms up to a stress induced bug and keep chugging water – a systemic infection or sepsis doesn’t look possible given the appearing and health of the incision area.
I removed my stitches today. Below are a few pictures.
There was a bit of bleeding when the stitches came out (not much), and there were some odd shadows in my skin that I hoped weren’t the magnet showing through. I remain ever paranoid, however unwarranted, that the magnet was nicked when I sutured myself and the parylene is compromised. I don’t think I hit it; the fear is there, though.
Healing continues well. Pain has remained nonexistent for the last couple days; I haven’t taken any pain medication since the day of the surgery, and I’ve been just fine. It has been tender to the touch both at the incision and where the magnet is settled under my skin, but only with pressure.
The photos below are from this morning when I changed my dressing. I’m currently using triple antibacterial ointment and a half transpore sheet changed twice daily, wrapping my finger in flexible gauze roll over the transpore during the day just to give it some padding and keep me aware of the site.
Healing is going very well. I took off my bandage for a little while last night as things were getting quite moist and waterlogged under the tegaderm.
There was quite a bit of white skin around the wound that was concerning me a tiny bit, but speaking to a medical expert reassured me that it was just scar tissue forming and not skin that I would need to remove manually. In any case, after an hour of exposure to the open air, the white area shrunk significantly, indicating that at least some of it was just water absorption.
Although the tegaderm definitely had some life left in it, the tip of the finger wasn’t sealed because the incision had bled a tiny bit and loosened the grip. I took it off to redress it.
I gently washed off the site with an alcohol swab, helping to get some of the dried blood off. The little dots of blood are new, and the pale whiteness of the site of one of my first slices that slipped too close to the epidermis is a little concerning – I’m hopping it’s water logged and not the beginnings of necrosis in that one spot; that could be a trick to deal with.
(Phew. Typing with no middle finger will definitely be something to get used to.)
Surgery went EXCELLENTLY today. I performed it at a friend (psuedononymously, Chad) and his family member’s (Linda) house. Linda has had quite a bit of medical training, so was an awesome resource to bounce ideas off of and get advice from leading up to the procedure.
After my failure last time(s), I was determined to make things work this time. I administered the lidocaine and cleaned everything (with additional clorhex swabs from Linda, which was super helpful).
I’m finally home from school for the summer, and I have one precious week before I start back to work in San Francisco. I’ve also come into contact with a good friend’s family member who works as a supervising nurse at a very large facility who has expressed interest in helping me out. Although I’m very confident in my research, it’s hugely comforting to have a medical professional that is willing to be with me, in person, during the procedure to offer advice and help out.
Two points I wanted to clarify based on some great feedback here:
My last post is not recommending that lido with epi be used – plain old lidocaine is much more easy to manage and use safely. Rather, lido with epi is not a one way trip to losing your finger, as it often is regarded as in the dogma of biohacking – while it should be treated cautiously, it is not necessarily contraindicated for digital work.
Lidocaine with epinephrine provides its own hemostasis, and its use makes tourniquets unnecessary. Using a tourniquet AND lidocaine with epi, or some other hemostatic method, can indeed lead to ischemia as evidenced by issues other magnet implantees have had — no reason to mess with something that works just fine without epi.
Disclaimer: I am not a physician, nor am I responsible for, or qualified to make, advise, or influence, medical decisions based on the content of this post. This post is the musing of an entirely untrained college student.
As I finished up a long day of finals studying, I thought I’d compile and post some information I’ve learned during my research on digital surgery in preparation for both my own surgery and for general interest.
Digital Blocks
Lidocaine is administered in the form of a digital block for a variety of procedures on the fingers. There are a few types of digital blocks, the most effective seeming to be the transthecal block, which involves an injection of anesthesia into the flexor tendon sheath (this can lead to injection site pain, so appears to be less favorable). Another, slightly easier method is a web block, which injects anesthetic into the web space near the MCP joint – others’ and my method of choice for magnet insertion.
Lido + Epi
Digital block methods have been the subject of some controversy regarding lidocaine with epinephrine. Lidocaine is potentiated by epinephrine, both in terms of effective pain dampening properties and in duration. Unfortunately, epinephrine is a vasoconstrictor, and in the case of the digits of the hand, there is a major concern that the epinephrine can cause constriction to the point of digital ischemia, leading to gangrene issues, necrosis, etc… Not a pretty picture.
