Getting old -- 2 stars, not recommended

[toprob]

Occasionally I get a week written off to medical bumph, and that's been this week. Just getting over yet another bug, all the family has had it, the inevitable consequence of a grandson at kindy....

50 years ago, at Outward Bound, I broke a bone in my foot, being thrown off a wall by my team-mates. No hard feelings. The doc said that if I didn't keep off it for 6 months, it would continue to cause issues. So I didn't, and it did. Lately it's been crippling me, so I went to the doctor last week and he referred me for an xray. Today he rang me, osteoarthritis, compounded by the early fracture. No surprises there. What did surprise me was the bit which said 'there is a 13mm linear metallic foreign body projected over the distal tibia...' So that's how they've been tracking me. Apparently it needs to come out, as you are not meant to have random bits of metal stuck in your body.

One of those milestone birthdays next week, so there's that to look forward to.

[Splitpin]

Bloody hell Rob.....take it easy.
I wonder what the object is

[cowpatz]

Oh, bugger Rob. Any idea where the metal came from? An alien tracking device? With aging comes paying penance for ignoring past advice and thinking that you're invincible.
Mine were for kneeling on concrete hangar, and tarmac floors, banging spanners with my wrists to loosen nuts, and of course the "let's use our back as a crane".
Do you have a big celebration in mind for what I presume is the passing of the 7th decade? Good luck with the foot.

[Aharon]

Sorry to hear that. Get well

Surprised me that you have no problems going through airport security detectors many times without having them go off blaring horns due to metal in your foot unless it is thick shoe leather covering it up??

Regards,

Aharon

[toprob]

Aharon, I guess it doesn't trigger anything because it's tiny, you probably couldn't take over an aircraft with a 13mm weapon...
I don't go through metal detectors anyway, as I already have a titanium heart valve and an implanted defibrillator, so I get to go around.

Do you have a big celebration in mind for what I presume is the passing of the 7th decade? Good luck with the foot.

Turning 70, yeah, we'll have a family do this weekend, my daughter will make the cocktails.

[Aharon]

Happy 70th birthday to you!!!! We are very lucky and blessed to have you and your amazing contributions to wonderful world of flight simming. I have many payware and freeware sceneries that you made.

Regards,

Aharon

[deeknow]

Happy birthday for next week Rob, joining the lofty ranks in our Septuagenarian squadron

Interested to hear you went to O.B. I also went as an early 20-something back in the late 80s. Was a fantastic experience, something you never forget aye and gives your whole world outlook a good shake-up, probably just at the right time as a young-un

I'd say go for it to get that pesky screw removed if you are cool with the aesthetic and it's not gonna cost you too much for the procedure.

No breaks for me at O.B. but have since found my skeleton in possession of plates on both forearms, a complex titanium structure supporting whats left of my humerus and elbow on the right arm, and a 4-inch bolt keeping my right femur attached to the end of the ball-joint. Along with about 20 screws of various dimensions. So far no airport scanner has complained

Awhile back I had one other 80mm screw removed from my leg that was protruding (had been un-screwing itself slowly) and couldn't sit without discomfort, and now the big one in my femur now starting to give me jip so am hoping to get that out later this year.

[toprob]

Cheers, Dean. I think that in 5000 years when civilization starts to recover, they'll dig up our cities and freak out at the amount of metal that we carried around inside our bodies.
Yeah, I think that metal detectors don't need to see what's inside, the only reason I go around them is that a strong magnetic field can deactivate my implant.
Can't imagine having screws start to come out of me, but I certainly notice the twisted wire which held my sternum together after surgery, I can feel the little plastic(?) coatings which stop them irritating.
I saw the referral online covering the foreign body, but just notice a new one, talking about a fracture, so I guess someone has had another look at the xray and seen the original fracture. Would be great to talk to someone about this, maybe there's some sort of physio which would help with it.

[toprob]

Doctor rang today and said that the foreign body wouldn't need to be removed, as it isn't doing any harm. Since I found out about this, I have recalled that when I was a boy, maybe 10, I was jabbed by something playing on the floor, and panicked when I couldn't find anything in the carpet. I also couldn't find any holes in my ankle. My brothers told me that anything which got stuck in your body would travel to your heart eventually, and I was worried for a while, but decided that there was nothing there.
So that's been there for 60 years, probably a sewing needle. Here's to another 60.

[Splitpin]

Star Rob "Here's to another 60."

[emfrat]

So that's been there for 60 years, probably a sewing needle. Here's to another 60.

13mm is a bit short for sewing with - maybe it was a gramophone needle...
(younger viewers may need some help from Mr Google )

[Charl]

SO here's the bright side (there's always a bright side):
Based on average heights of a 10 yo and an ole bugger respectively, the intrusive needle has grown proportionately shorter by a massive 33%

[toprob]

If it went in my belly, it'd be even smaller, that part of me just won't stop growing.
Actually, in my family home it would more likely be a sewing machine needle than a gramophone needle. Now I guess I'll never know.

[cowpatz]

Cheers, Dean. I think that in 5000 years when civilization starts to recover, they'll dig up our cities and freak out at the amount of metal that we carried around inside our bodies.

That and silicon. I think they will also look back at treatments like chemotherapy as barbaric, as we did with bloodletting and the use of arsenic in the medical profession of the past.