AIBU to think my arm was bloody mutilated??

[plutoisnotaplanet]

I finally had my implant removed from my arm tonight after 2 months of back and forth with GP's and the clinic :( for anyone who has one, make bloody sure you can feel it through your skin at all times and when you go to have it taken out, make sure you can show them exactly where it is!!

So I went to my GP to have it removed but he couldn't find it, fair enough I was then referred to a special clinic that take them out all the time after a scan. I had my appointment 2 weeks later.

They found the implant on the scan and made a big incision that needed 5 stitches in the end, but in the process of digging around in my arm for it with her fingers, the implant snapped and dug itself deep into My muscle around the other side of my arm I could feel it and it hurt but when I said I thought she'd pushed it further in and round my arm she said that wasn't possible...

She gave up trying to find it, stitched me up and said I'd have to have it removed under General anesthetic so she would write to my GP and explain...

A week later I get a phone call from the same doctor who said I should go back to the clinic a couple of weeks later to have it removed by her mentor, who was apparently more experienced

Anyway, fast forward to tonight and she scanned my arm again and couldn't find the pieces of implant, but I told her I could now feel them around my elbow... She scanned and there they were in the muscle around my elbow (GRIM).

The picture is where she was first digging around (the scar) vs where the pieces of implant finally came out of my arm (the dressing)

My arm is really swollen and sore and I now have 2 1 inch scars that I'll have for life...

I'm not sure how to feel about all this... It's bad right??

[MediumOrchid]

Oh my goodness, I have an implant and I'm now quite freaked out about getting it removed! I do know where it is though, it's quite obvious under the skin.

A bit stupidly I didn't think to read up on how they took it out until after I'd had it put in! I might not have gone ahead with it!

[PitchFork]

you poor thing.
this is exactly why I would never ever agree to an implant.

[Pineapplemilkshake]

Medium please don't worry, they are very easy to remove as long as you can feel it under the skin. All it requires is a quick local anaesthetic, small nick of the skin and pull it out. In all the hundreds that I've removed, almost all have said that they barely felt it. It's only the deep ones that are difficult to feel that prove tricky.

[karalime]

Oh lord that sounds awful.

I had mine removed a few weeks ago (should have been taken out last October but I never got around to it), it took about 20 minute of coaxing to get it out but I only have a small scab.

[BarryTheKestrel]

Mine disappeared a month after it was put in, took them 18 months to refer me to someone to find it and have it out. I had to go to a clinic over an hour away from home and it took them 30 MINS to locate it and take it out. Huge scar on my arm from it. Never ever again.
They say the risk of them embedding or moving is rare but since I had these issues I've heard of loads.
Feeling for you this evening

[Bubblebloodypop]

Pluto, pushed down on one end so the other end popped against my skin, made a little cut and it just slid straight out. The Drs wanted me to wait months to have it taken out and I wasn't getting on with it at all. (I had a light period that lasted for 9 months).

[Buddahbelly]

I was basically forced into getting an implant by a doctor once (Won't go into details but it was a horrible place and was put on me as if I had to choose something so it was implant or the coil) I chose implant.

From day 1 I turned into a hormonal mess, I argued with everyone I came into sight with, went off doing anything and looking back I know fully that was the start of my depression. I had it out after 5 months, 2 scars still from the stitches, getting them out is ridiculous but the best thing I ever did was having it removed. sorry Op sounds like you've been through the mill getting yours out.

[MsMarvel]

Gosh and I was annoyed at the scar that mine left getting removed. Which is a tiny little knick but I dislike that I can see it.

But its nothing compared to your experience, hope it all heals ok

[BestZebbie]

I have had several so I now have a whole collection of small but untidy scars on my inner arm, one for each entry and one for every exit. Two have been straightforward, but I think this may also possibly be because I now insist on them using local despite protest, after the first one had apparently "healed in" and was a proper bracing-knee-against-table-to-pull type job that took ages.
I also find the the day immediately after having one taken out is very dramatic and hormonal for me, I do wonder if they somehow give you a massive extra dose if they get squeezed as they come out.

In related news, I was seriously unimpressed by having been assured repeatedly throughout choosing them as my contraception that they could be removed on request at any time (modulo slight delay caused by getting an appointment etc) and then they point blank refused to do it for three months when I wanted to have it out to TTC because I hadn't had an MMR jab recently. (For reference, I was perfectly fine getting an MMR on its own merits, and def did not want to harm a baby by conceiving with one in my system, but also had made my own choices about wanting to get the implant out several months in advance of TTC so they delayed my starting, and also I felt that they had never ever said "we'll take it out but only on condition that you have a vaccination" in any literature ever about how reversible it was when you wanted to TTC.

[EweAreHere]

That's outrageous. And horrifying. I would complain formally.

[Chickoletta]

Had to go to Sexual Health Clinic to have mine taken out. That alone turned me into some strange Miranda like creature who kept saying things like, 'Could you tell me where the loo is please? I'VE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE' and 'A pregnancy test? Of course, if that's what you usually do - I WOULDN'T KNOW.'

Anyway, ended up with a bloody medical student. She put the local anaesthetic in wrong twice so that I could feel everything but couldn't have any more and then spent half an hour digging around in my arm. She was begging her supervisor to take over hut she wouldn't - only did in the end b cause I shouted at her saying that I had to pick up my kids in 10 mins and would have to go with the bloody implelements still attached if it took any longer. In the end I left with a big wound with stitches and finger mark bruises on my forearm which lasted a week.

I had no warning at all that it would be difficult to take out and still feel bloody fuming about the whole experience.

Sending DH for the snip ASAP.

[microscope]

ended up with a bloody medical student.

I very much doubt that. What you probably had was a qualified doctor, who would have been training to fit and remove implants as a post graduate qualification. If it was genuinely a medical student that would be grounds for a serious complaint.

[PitchFork]

actuallu I would complain and report it to the yellow card scheme

[Coldhandscoldheart]

I took mine out too, just as bubbley says, except with tweezers. It was a bit of a fiddle, but I didn't have time to go to the clinic, and didn't want another at that point.
Again, I'd always been able to feel mine under the skin.

[Danglyweed]

I have the skinniest arms, it was sticking out my skin. Still took 45 mins to remove. Black and blue from elbow to armpit for weeks.

Never ever again.

[BalloonSlayer]

Bloody hell!

[GinAndSonic]

Oooft, nasty OP, sorry you went through all that. They tried to persuade me to have the implant or mirena coil but having known a few people who had issues with the insertion or removal of both options I just got the mini pill. Been on it four months now, no periods, no spotting and even my very sensitive, prone to bleeding, cervical erosion hasnt bled. When i went back for more pills after the first three months they offered the implant / mirena again but given how well the mini pill suits me theres not a hope in hells chance I'm switching.

[123therearenomoreusernames]

Mine made me suicidal. The thoughts came completely out if the blue. No history of anxiety or depression. It still took two weeks before I could get an appointment to get it out. They doped me up on diazepam in the meantime.

They should be banned!!

[Buddahbelly]

123 Cannot agree more, I don't think they've honestly done enough tests on them. I have never felt so depressed as I did when I had these, the lowest came when I argued with a woman over a parking space - That just wasn't me, even dp said it was him or the implant that had to go.

Sil has had hers for 3 years now, she swears by it but the past year we have all noticed how she has gone from a mellow pleasant girl to a vile, kick off merchant, her blood pressure is through the roof as she's always arguing with someone about something that usually doesn't matter, just last week in the park someone was throwing bread to the ducks when you're not meant to. you'd of thought shed discovered someone about to be stabbed the way she screamed at the poor woman! She won't hear of it though when ove said to get that implant out.

[UnderTheGreenwoodTree]

Blimey OP, yanbu. That's awful. Glad you've got a good supply of chocolate to console you.

[Titflaps]

Fuck me sideways no that's not acceptable. (((I have to say OP, I'm extremely impressed with how you're consoling yourself with your treats in the background though)) that looks like my idea of a good time. I think you should make a complaint as it looks to me like some refresher training might be required.

[Queenbean]

My doctor has trying to persuade me to get one but given I am absolutely crazy on the pill then I have point blank refused. He reckons that they deliver a more consistent hormone than the pill but no way.

A lady at work had a similar issue to you though, she also had quite a lot of weight on her arms - is it possible the two are linked somehow? Given Microscope's post is that possible? It looks awful though, for you OP

[OnceThereWasThisGirlWho]

I daren't get one, and this is another reason why.

Sick of HCPs trying to talk me into hormonal contraception. They don't give a flying fuck about my mental health and I've had to keep explaining that as it is up to me to manage my depression alone, I alone have to watch out for anything that could tip the balance like an implant! I find the implication, as a childless woman, that I shouldn't be conceiving to be really offensive and controlling tbh.
Mirena coil removal was so painful and horrible (strings had disappeared, only had it in for 3 weeks!) that I am now too scared to have a smear test...

[OnceThereWasThisGirlWho]

• not that they should be trying to talk women with DC into these horrible things either.
  
  SOmetimes it seems like the pill and all that came after was actually an invention for men - sod the effect on the women. Wear a fukcing condom, men!

[OnceThereWasThisGirlWho]

Sorry!