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Sensor problem and breakage

Welcome to the forum @Redneckbunny64
Let us know how you get on after the X-ray sounds very painful indeed

Be interesting to know if this has happened to others on the forum

Alan 😉
 
Gosh, no, and can't say I've ever heard anyone else say so on the forum either.
 
Ouch! Sorry to hear this @Redneckbunny64

Hope it gets sorted for you very swiftly, and wishing you a speedy recovery.
 
Redneckbunny64 said:
I have had a piece of a metallic foreign body break off in my arm. My doctor sent me for an x-ray to confirm. Tomorrow I will find out what is to be done about it.
It was very red, was swollen, and painful.
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Hello, I had the same thing happen to me, I had xrays and antibiotics but it formed into an absess and I ended up having it lanced and a 2nd lot of antibiotics.
 
Oh gosh! How awful!

It will likely be the introducer needle which is fired through the sensor on application but is then supposed to be immediately retracted back into the applicator. Some people have found it came adrift from the applicator on application and stayed in their arm on application but they were able to remover it straight away themselves from the centre of the sensor. Not heard of one actually snapping off and I think this is unlikely but they definitely can come out of the applicator with the sensor.
I think we had one or two photos of sensors with the applicator needle still sticking out of the sensor on someone's arm on the forum a good few years ago. Not heard of it recently till now. Hope they are able to extract it easily.

I suppose if you don't know it shouldn't be there you might not think anything was amiss and that you need to remove it and then it could slowly work it's way into the arm over time.
 
My dad worked in a steel works in Sheffield and they had a very powerful electromagnet and a very skilled first aider who sorted out the removal of bits of metal from where they should not be. He saved eyes and fingers and also removed the need for surgery for a lot of men. It would need to be a metal which was magnetic though, but it might be an option for you @Redneckbunny64
 
Drummer said:
My dad worked in a steel works in Sheffield and they had a very powerful electromagnet and a very skilled first aider who sorted out the removal of bits of metal from where they should not be. He saved eyes and fingers and also removed the need for surgery for a lot of men. It would need to be a metal which was magnetic though, but it might be an option for you @Redneckbunny64
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That’s extraordinary @Drummer ! 😱 Though part of me thinks I can’t believe that would be recommended (allowed) any longer! I can’t imagine you’d be able to ensure, eg a nail, to come out neatly end-first rather than twisting around under the power of such a strong magnet?

It’s one of the reasons why sensors etc should not be worn in MRI environments as I understand it - so that metallic elements aren’t dragged through or twisted/torn away from tissue - and potentially damaging the scanner itself.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
That’s extraordinary @Drummer ! 😱 Though part of me thinks I can’t believe that would be recommended (allowed) any longer! I can’t imagine you’d be able to ensure, eg a nail, to come out neatly end-first rather than twisting around under the power of such a strong magnet?

It’s one of the reasons why sensors etc should not be worn in MRI environments as I understand it - so that metallic elements aren’t dragged through or twisted/torn away from tissue - and potentially damaging the scanner itself.
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It would be over 50 years ago that I read about it in the works magazine, but I think it was a fairly small device with an adjustable intensity. The steel industry was quite dangerous - Dad would sometimes come home very sombre when a man had been injured, or even killed. The rolling mill, where sheet steel was produced was particularly hazardous.
 
The old eye hospital in the centre of Brum. used to have one! Would have been useful many times for my first husband, regularly oxyacetylene welding up holes in rotten car floors - of course he wore goggles, but then you check to see if that's enough 'or what' and to check, you, er tap that bit with a hammer, and you can't see sufficiently with your goggles on, so you've shoved em up onto your head like sunglasses and Oh dear, the tapping causes some rust to fall down on you........

But it was firmly switched off at 6pm when the majority of the doctors went home and the 'Emergency' service was wholly manned by nurses, and you had to ring a doorbell on the side door and explain your problem through a grille before they let you in. In those days and with elderly machines, they took ages to warm up again. (they could go and find or wake up the night duty staff doctor(s) if absolutely necessary) Most of those ladies were extremely good at their jobs and sorted him out pretty quick NP.
 
Yes, when I was very young my Dad got a sliver of steel in his eye and had to go to the eye infirmary and he said they sewed a copper ring onto his eye to keep it open and then used a strong magnet to draw out the offending steel. The idea of having a copper ring sewn to his eye seemed much worse than having a bit of steel in his eye!
 
I do believe the devices used to keep eyes open during procedures are much more directed at your eyelids, top and bottom, than your eye ball, Barbara - they had to use a sort of thing that slid along the skin and eyelashes when doing the cataracts I had - the very first appointment for it that I had, they put me in a room on your own (husband with me) to show you a video of how they did it. didn't see ANY of that malarkey, or even a hypodermic syringe, all I was aware of was a pre op gallon of eye drops, with a gap of 5-ish minutes between doses, with a nice nurse sitting in a different room with me just chatting randomly about where we liked going on holiday - then into the theatre, onto the bed and loads of explanation then he just got on with it and didn't chat but did say reassuring things to me throughout the procedure. Asked me after what I reckoned about it all.

Told him TBH it was one of the worst experiences of my life cos I couldn't see so didn't know what or how he was doing things, nor even the room or the other 2 HCPs in there. However, it 100% wouldn't stop me having the one in the other eye done! 2nd one was worse, and the surgeon lied throughout, told me several times, Nearly finished! - and I thought, No you haven't, you fibber, cos you've only just done 'that' bit - just bloody well get on with it, please. Still didn't see, wasn't in the slightest, aware of what or how.
 
@trophywench This will have been about 60 years ago and they were using a magnet to remove the metal splinter so quite different to a cataract op but yes the copper ring that he mentioned was almost certainly to keep his eye open, so that they could see the splinter but also no doubt so that it didn't cut through or embed into the inside of his eyelid if he blinked as it was coming out.
I wasn't there and can only go by what he told me they did and I am certain that things are very different now, but the memory of his description of it to me as a young child is quite vivid still. The moral of the story was to use the correct equipment for the correct job and I seem to recall the circumstances were something akin to him using the wrong type of hammer to hit a chisel and it causing a fragment of the chisel to sheer off.
 
trophywench said:
I do believe the devices used to keep eyes open during procedures are much more directed at your eyelids, top and bottom, than your eye ball, Barbara - they had to use a sort of thing that slid along the skin and eyelashes when doing the cataracts I had - the very first appointment for it that I had, they put me in a room on your own (husband with me) to show you a video of how they did it. didn't see ANY of that malarkey, or even a hypodermic syringe, all I was aware of was a pre op gallon of eye drops, with a gap of 5-ish minutes between doses, with a nice nurse sitting in a different room with me just chatting randomly about where we liked going on holiday - then into the theatre, onto the bed and loads of explanation then he just got on with it and didn't chat but did say reassuring things to me throughout the procedure. Asked me after what I reckoned about it all.

Told him TBH it was one of the worst experiences of my life cos I couldn't see so didn't know what or how he was doing things, nor even the room or the other 2 HCPs in there. However, it 100% wouldn't stop me having the one in the other eye done! 2nd one was worse, and the surgeon lied throughout, told me several times, Nearly finished! - and I thought, No you haven't, you fibber, cos you've only just done 'that' bit - just bloody well get on with it, please. Still didn't see, wasn't in the slightest, aware of what or how.
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How long ago did you get your cataracts done? I am currently waiting for an appointment and I am feeling quite nervous about it.
 
15 ish years ago now - still all done in hospitals at that time. In Coventry now they're done in a specific 'outside' clinic somewhere in the Ball Hill area, with you sitting in a nice comfy reclining type chair and very quick process apparently. The friend who had hers done, only one in her case didn't give me any other info whatever, I specifically asked her for 'more' but she replied there was nothing else she could tell me about it. She had it done and dusted within 2 ish hours of walking in the front door her husband had accompanied her there and said he'd driven them there, they told him to come back at X time and she was taken to another room - so he went to a local cafe until the appointed hour and collected his wife. They walked back to the car together, arm in arm cos she wears glasses all the time and obviously wasn't. Just told not to try reading or telly overnight and should be OK when she got up tomorrow. We saw them both on the Thursday and she didn't even need any eye drops and just back to normal again. Just went to Specsavers for her annual eye test, they said her cataract they'd been telling her she had for yonks was now big enough to be operated on and referred her immediately to this clinic, she went the following Tuesday, job done.

Just goes to show that every cataract is different - which makes perfect sense to me.
 
Other half had his done, one eye at a time, but the first one was done 10 days from seeing the optician and referral to Spa Medica to having the procedure, on NHS. They do have places all over the country.
The whole thing was straightforward and not too bad and that was from someone who hates anything to do with eyes so the biggest problem was putting the drops in afterwards.
A few issues with getting the right prescription for glasses as new ones needed but the vision has changed in the 6 months after it was done.
 
Leadinglights said:
Other half had his done, one eye at a time, but the first one was done 10 days from seeing the optician and referral to Spa Medica to having the procedure, on NHS. They do have places all over the country.
The whole thing was straightforward and not too bad and that was from someone who hates anything to do with eyes so the biggest problem was putting the drops in afterwards.
A few issues with getting the right prescription for glasses as new ones needed but the vision has changed in the 6 months after it was done.
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Thanks for the information. I am expecting to get the left one done first as it is a lot worse. Justing waiting for the phone call to book initial appointment. Fingers crossed I won't have to wait too long. Meanwhile hubby is my unpaid taxi driver.
 
Leadinglights said:
Other half had his done, one eye at a time, but the first one was done 10 days from seeing the optician and referral to Spa Medica to having the procedure, on NHS. They do have places all over the country.
The whole thing was straightforward and not too bad and that was from someone who hates anything to do with eyes so the biggest problem was putting the drops in afterwards.
A few issues with getting the right prescription for glasses as new ones needed but the vision has changed in the 6 months after it was done.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. I am expecting to get the left one done first as it is a lot worse. Justing waiting for the phone call to book initial appointment. Fingers crossed I won't have to wait too long. Meanwhile hubby is my unpaid taxi driver
trophywench said:
15 ish years ago now - still all done in hospitals at that time. In Coventry now they're done in a specific 'outside' clinic somewhere in the Ball Hill area, with you sitting in a nice comfy reclining type chair and very quick process apparently. The friend who had hers done, only one in her case didn't give me any other info whatever, I specifically asked her for 'more' but she replied there was nothing else she could tell me about it. She had it done and dusted within 2 ish hours of walking in the front door her husband had accompanied her there and said he'd driven them there, they told him to come back at X time and she was taken to another room - so he went to a local cafe until the appointed hour and collected his wife. They walked back to the car together, arm in arm cos she wears glasses all the time and obviously wasn't. Just told not to try reading or telly overnight and should be OK when she got up tomorrow. We saw them both on the Thursday and she didn't even need any eye drops and just back to normal again. Just went to Specsavers for her annual eye test, they said her cataract they'd been telling her she had for yonks was now big enough to be operated on and referred her immediately to this clinic, she went the following Tuesday, job done.

Just goes to show that every cataract is different - which makes perfect sense to me.
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Thanks Jenny for all the information. I don't know yet where the procedure will take place, but hope I don't have to wait too long.
 
Out of interest @Redneckbunny64 which sensor are you using ??

I tried Dexcom one+ in October the hole is still slowly healing. I had ultrasound to locate it. Abscess and antibiotics, small slit and squeeze / wash out

The bit which they think was part of the filament tracked up arm towards shoulder and left a track about 4cm long and a 5p piece size hole which is healed over but has quite a big dip in it. They said it’d take up to a year to fully heal. Needless to say I’m not keen on changing to Dexcom !!!
 
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