Foreign Body in My Body

Sometimes I think my life is just too much… There were times when introducing myself, that newbies would exclaim, “All this for one person?? You’re a Job!” And I’d brush it off. Now, now I agree. It’s like (minor) calamity after calamity.

There’s a whole needle in my body-as far as we can tell! A whole suturing needle in my body, hanging around, waiting to torture me!

And it’s been there for a long time. As in, maybe a year now. People have seen it. And they’ve kept quiet.

What in the world!???

In April, I had an MRI. Don’t ask me about the January MRI because surely they must have seen something in me? I can’t access the images and report so I don’t know. But let’s go back to April. I lay on the bed and the radiologist started scanning. Then she stopped and asked if I have metal in my underwear as metal was showing up on her screen. None of my panties have metal, but I told her she could come check the one I was wearing for herself… So she did. And yep, no metal in my undies.

And that was it. That’s all. It ended there.

Then, two weeks ago, the rheumatologist suggested I have Ferguson view X-rays done of my SI joints as X-rays might show more than the MRI have. I went in. Again, the radiologist-different hospital, different lady-asked if I had metal in my underwear as the screen was picking metal up. I told her about the April question and asked HER where exactly the metal was showing up, and what it looked like.

She said it was in my uterus, and curved.

I won’t lie. A suturing needle did not cross my mind at all. NO MISTAKE crossed my mind. I thought it was a semi shut c-shaped surgical clip that they were picking up. I wondered with a friend, why the gynae hadn’t told me he was going to leave a metal clip in me.

Again, we forgot about it till I received my report and images this past weekend

I looked at the shape and thought, “Wow! This thing is bigger than I thought!” Then I thought, “Hey wait a minute! This looks like a suturing needle! No…It can’t be, can it!??”

Conscious that I didn’t want to put ideas in her head, I asked my surgical nurse cousin what she thought it looked like.

She immediately came back with, “It looks like a suturing needle,” along with some photos of real suturing needles.

I wish I could make your heart drop as mine did.

A needle!? In me? Who did it? What will happen? Who will fix it? What damage has it done?

Tomorrow, I see a surgeon I’ve never met before to discuss removing the needle. I went to hospital Trauma unit first, and they said whoever removes it will need an X-ray machine to find the needle as s/he enters.

They also said I should go back if I start vomiting blood.

I am officially freaked out. I’m nervous. I used to rub this thing, thinking it was my own body being weird, trying to massage the pain away. Do you know how how disconcerting it is to realise I was massaging a needle?? (Or so we all suppose.)

Unbelievable.