Continuing in the drama that is Lane‘s leg-boob implant-gone-wrong (see also: part one and part two), Lane updates us with his healing, which like the implant, seemed to be going well but then turned out far worse than expected. He writes in describing his ordeal (and includes a gory picture of course),

Thursday night I had to take out the stitches that had been put in ten days earlier. My leg once again decided to let a great deal of clear lymphatic fluid out through the wound. Once I finished draining my leg I carefully removed the stitches. As I did so the wound opened right back up a second time. This time the tissue around the wound looked purple and dead. I cut away the dead tissue and decided it was time to stop screwing around and visit the hospital. I flushed the wound with saline, packed it with sterile gauze, then sensi-wrapped it and headed to the hospital.

All the way there I thought of a million excuses I could give them in order to prevent anyone from getting into trouble. Once in the parking lot I decided it would be in my best interest to just come clean with the truth in case something more serious was happening to me. I went up the the front desk, told the nurse that I had a large wound on my calf from an implant extraction that was going to require stitches. She immediately took down my info, filled out the forms and brought me to the suture room.

Ten minutes later a nurse approached me with her clipboard and documents and asked me what happened. Instead of unwrapping my leg I pulled up the images on my blackberry and showed her what we did, what had happened, and how it was looking now. She smiled and said “wow, that’s amazing”, followed by “I hope you did this all sterile”.

I explained all the precautions we had taken and the setup we used and the implant material, and then waited for the lecture as she left to get a doctor and surgeon to come look at the wound. To my surprise not one word of “you shouldn’t have done this” came out of their mouths. They checked my Blackberry, looked at the wound, and then told me, “good call on removing the dead tissue”. They said they wouldn’t suture it back up because the skin was too tight in this area and believed that it was part on the reason it keeps weeping and looks irritated. They said to clean it once a day with sterile saline, gob Polysporin over it and cover it with new gauze, then wrap it back up. I was told to expect it to take four to six weeks to heal, and six to eight months for the scar to turn white.

I was really expecting to have to deal with the health board and get a few speeches about the dangers but they were actually very helpful, gave me a few reasons most implants reject and every one was the same as BME or Brian had discussed already. They felt it was a simple case of rejection and the wound being too tight and sent me on my way saying there was no sign of infection and keep up the good work looking after it. WOW!

These days almost all “medical encounter” stories I hear are quite positive… Either way, if you have a problem that feels like it might be moving into territory that’s beyond what you’re comfortable with, do what Lane did and visit a doctor!

Lane sums up his leg implant experience (scroll down a couple entries if you haven’t seen it yet) by simply saying, “My body just did not want it at all.”

The rather unpleasant photos below were taken two weeks after the implant was put in.

A day after Lane took the sutures out, the wound opened up and nearly a liter of yellowish-clear fluid poured out of the incision — the previous three nights he’d been running a high fever accompanied by heavy sweats, general ill-health, and a stiff neck. After consulting with Brian on the phone, who inserted the boobs, they agreed that taking it out was the right thing to do. Because it was the holidays, Lane’s staff weren’t around, so in a one hour DIY procedure and with his wife’s assistance he removed it. Thankfully it’s now healing well — flat chested once again — and looking much better.

It’s unclear whether this was the early stages of septic shock, or if his body was straining to reject the large piece of silicon.

However, I’d really like to emphasize that Lane is a healthy guy that’s aware of body modification issues, and Brian is an experienced and clean practitioner — even in the best of cases, things can and often do go horribly wrong. If Lane had not removed the implant when he did, he could very easily have become seriously ill or even died without emergency care. If you choose to explore the world of heavy modification, it’s your responsibility to not just find a good artist you can trust, but also to be completely aware of what you’re getting yourself into and be very in tune with your own body. I can not repeat enough that things go wrong for everyone, and it’s these cases we need to prepare for. Being prepared is what will keep them as nothing but temporary setbacks instead of permanent setbacks.

Note to self: If you’ve been feeling nauseous all day, editing ModBlog entries may not always help take your mind off it..

– Roo