Fellow Cyborgs - Speak Up!

[spudley112]

Ok, I jest, but I recently had x-rays of my right leg done and it was cool to see the titanium plate and 7 screws that hold me together (wasn't so cool getting them though) and I quipped to the nurse that I am a cyborg apparently.

All joking aside, who else has had to have metal parts installed (fillings in your teeth don't count)? What do you have and what caused it?

Mine is from a motorcycle accident in 1994 when I was living in Hawaii. A car hit me because the driver didn't see me and was trying to cross the highway between cars. It severed my right foot at the ankle, de-gloved the skin from most of the foot and I lost a good chunk of bone. Luckily, I had a world-class surgeon and he was able to save my foot. Several surgeries, a skin graft, physical therapy and a lot of pain, and I was up and running again....albeit a few years later.

[Mechanickal]

On the 28th of February 2018, I was in bed running a fever because of the flu.
It hitted me harder than ever before and I couldn't get up for 2 days at that point.

My wife, then girlfriend, walked in the room and said I should wash up and try eating some.
She went downstairs to grab a towel after the started running a bath.

I stepped from a warm bed into the cold room, and walked over to the warm bathroom.
The temperature changes, combined with the fever and low blood sugar, caused an instant blood pressure drop and I went lights out.


First thing I remember is seeing nothing but darkness, and my wife shouting my name in the distance. I "go" towards her, and her voice becomes louder.

I come to my senses and see her in front of me in tears.
I check my teeth with my tongue... Sure enough, I feel some loose parts around.

So I pick myself up and manage to spit out 2 teeth in the sink. I also notice a flesh wound on my chin, as if something teared a part off.

I instantly feel light headed and rapidly sit myself down again.

Some time later my dad walks in. My wife called him for assistance but I have no recollection of that.
I hear him saying to call an ambulance.

Moments later, the paramedics walk in... I was out again.

Once at the ER, a broken jaw is diagnosed.

Eventually, my chin is stitched up around 23h00, and I'm in the OR around 23h30.
I leave the hospital around 01h00, because there were no beds available, with 8 Ti screws through my gums into the bones.
They were interconnected with strong rubber bands and I end up eating food through a straw for a month.

After 5 weeks, the screws got removed with a screwdriver and no pain killers
So it was a temporary cyborg status.
In the beginning of April, my broken teeth got repaired and I was able to close this harsh chapter

[Gerhard Gerber]

My upper jaw was cut off and moved forward when I was 17 (about 1992) and is kept in place with wires and screws......royally stuffed up my sinuses in the process

That said, I don't think this type of thing qualifies you as a cyborg 

Pacemakers 

Lens replacements    My mom has two Zeiss certificates for her eyes 

[Don Pablo]

If a rebuilt jaw doesn't make you a cyborg, then I guess the Ti screw in my head doesn't either...

[Dutch_Tooler]

The motorcycle accident story rings a bell. I had temporary cyborg status for a year after my accident back in September 1995, with two titanium brace plates bridging a cracked vertebra. Plates were removed safely... I might still have them somewhere.

[Gerhard Gerber]

cyborg
/ˈsʌɪbɔːɡ/

noun
a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body

[Grant Lamontagne]

In case anyone doesn't know my story yet, a week before the 9/11 attack I fell while rock climbing.  I skidded down the rock face and fell about 8 feet, landing flat on my feet.  All my weight came down on my heels and one of them exploded.  I was scheduled to have reconstructive surgery a week later, but following the attacks my surgery was put off another week.  In the end I got eight screws and a plate holding my heelbone back together, and to this day I still have a limited range of motion in that ankle that causes a lot of difficulty going down stairs.

Then a few years ago I decided that wasn't good enough, so I broke my other ankle in three places and had two more screws installed in it.  I tell people that I was sick of always walking in left handed circles so I had some screws put in the right ankle to help straighten me out.   

Some of my friends call it the "Discount Wolverine Plan" and assume that I will keep getting my bones covered in metal until I have them all done.

I wasn't sure initially what metal was used, so I did something really stupid one time, and only realised how stupid I was after I was done and luckily didn't  actually suffer any.  I took some very strong neodumium magnets and rubbed them over where the screws are to see if they were magnetic.  This would have been very, very bad as the scar tissue over the incisions are extremely sensitive, even now, and heavy duty magnets latching on to internal screws would have been very unpleasant.   

So, I assume they are titanium, which I think means I am going to be a Terminator, not Wolverine.... 

Def

[spudley112]

It was meant in jest.

jest
/jest/

noun
a thing said or done for amusement; a joke.
"it was said in jest"

[spudley112]

In case anyone doesn't know my story yet, a week before the 9/11 attack I fell while rock climbing.  I skidded down the rock face and fell about 8 feet, landing flat on my feet.  All my weight came down on my heels and one of them exploded.  I was scheduled to have reconstructive surgery a week later, but following the attacks my surgery was put off another week.  In the end I got eight screws and a plate holding my heelbone back together, and to this day I still have a limited range of motion in that ankle that causes a lot of difficulty going down stairs.

Then a few years ago I decided that wasn't good enough, so I broke my other ankle in three places and had two more screws installed in it.  I tell people that I was sick of always walking in left handed circles so I had some screws put in the right ankle to help straighten me out.   

Some of my friends call it the "Discount Wolverine Plan" and assume that I will keep getting my bones covered in metal until I have them all done.

I wasn't sure initially what metal was used, so I did something really stupid one time, and only realised how stupid I was after I was done and luckily didn't  actually suffer any.  I took some very strong neodumium magnets and rubbed them over where the screws are to see if they were magnetic.  This would have been very, very bad as the scar tissue over the incisions are extremely sensitive, even now, and heavy duty magnets latching on to internal screws would have been very unpleasant.   

So, I assume they are titanium, which I think means I am going to be a Terminator, not Wolverine.... 

Def

Dang Grant, that is rough! LOL...I did the same thing with magnets to mine! Yeah, titanium is what we have. Imagine if the metal became magnetized...at the end of each day we would be pulling staples and paper clips off our legs. haha

[Gerhard Gerber]

It was meant in jest.

jest
/jest/

noun
a thing said or done for amusement; a joke.
"it was said in jest"

And being able to set off a metal detector with my face is not funny?......

 

Tiger Woods had (has?) better than 20/20 vision....and he wasn't born with it.....

[spudley112]

And being able to set off a metal detector with my face is not funny?......

 

Tiger Woods had (has?) better than 20/20 vision....and he wasn't born with it.....

I had Lasik and improved my vision to 20/15. It was a great decision!!!