POZ Community Forums

Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Lipodystrophy & Metabolic Problems => Topic started by: mjmel on February 19, 2009, 06:54:50 am

Title: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: mjmel on February 19, 2009, 06:54:50 am
I had an injury to my face recently and there were complications because I had the bio-alcamid treatments to correct lipo. The reason I post my current, ongoing ordeal here is so that those who have had the product bio-alcamid placed in their face (or arms, or legs) can be alerted and have a reference point to draw from if something happens to rupture the encapsulated product.

For quick reference, In 2005 I had bio-alcamid treatments placed in my face to augment loss of fat tissue. I was rated about category 4 of 5 and the difference it made in my appearance was phenomenal. I had about 3 different treatment followups and when I returned for a 4th tweak, I was told they stopped using bio-alcamid and introduced Precise, of the PMMA generation. Fine. I had me some Precise to fill the small deficits and dents. That was my last treatment and happy with it all.

By date:
February 5th, : I punched myself in my sleep. Yep. I did. I reached for the blankets in my sleep and failed to bring them over my shoulder so I made another grab for ‘em and my hand slipped again but that time the closed hand came back to me full force and I punched myself in left cheek. “OUCH! That smarted.”, I thought to myself. The next day the spot was sore but not swelling or giving me any discomfort.
February 7th : Cleaning up limbs from ice storm damage. I cut off a 3.5” thick limb from a medium sized holly tree and severed limb swings to slap me in the face. When it does I realize how heavy it is from all the berries and moisture. I eventually find my eyeglasses and resume my task. It didn't particularly hurt. I get a scratch on my face too.
February 10th: My face starts to hurt just a bit where I accidentally punched myself.
February 11th: My face is slightly swollen and progressively gets worst in the course of the day
February 12th:  5:30 AM, I make a call to my doctor before he even leaves his house to his office. (Yes, I have an exceptional physician.) He said he will make arrangements and by 7 AM I am at the hospital/ER entrance.  I will see/receive surgery by an ENT/Facial Plastic Surgeon not my general practitioner.
The swelling is shutting my eye to where I can't see out of it.  The cheek is red, angry (infected) and swollen to hell and back. Pain level 9 of a 10.
By 10 am I am in a hospital bed and IV drips antibiotics/pain meds drips. By 8pm I am having surgery ( the surgeon penciled me in to his scheduled surgeries) and the cheek is then suctioned to remove the inflammation agent, bio-alcamid. I am released from hospital and am back home by 7 pm the following evening of Friday 13th. I am home for Valentines Day! Yeah.
The surgeon removed sticky, amber colored globs of goo which is all over the inside of my left cheek.
Feb. 18th update: I had my post surgery followup appointment with the surgeon yesterday.
Result: I am recovering but none too fast. The drain tube could not be removed today, as anticipated,  because there is still infection present. Onward with antibiotics & liquid diet for another week.
Note to self: In regards to future endeavors WEAR SAFETY EQUIPMENT to lessen the probabilities of injury.
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: bear60 on February 20, 2009, 01:40:18 pm
Mike
I am so sorry to hear about this. I wish you well and hope it clears up ok.

Joel
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: minismom on February 25, 2009, 07:36:30 pm
Good grief!  Sounds like you need to wear a football helmet to bed to protect yourself from yourself.  Was the sticky goo the actual implant?  Did it rupture?  I do hope this clears up quickly and you can start to feel better.

Mum
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: mjmel on March 04, 2009, 06:42:33 pm
minismom, yep it ruptured when branch impacted..or when I punched myself.  :-[

update: Was checked into hospital Friday nite and stayed till Tuesday....when a staph infection invaded cheek. 2 nd surgical procedure on Friday nite to flush out infection and clean up cheek--surgeon found that he had not removed all bioalcamid on first surgery.  4 days of hospitalized on IV antibiotics...drip....drip...drip...4 days. All is looking good now. Healing well. No sign of infection returning.
yippee! Have appointment to take out drain tube on Saturday. Then incision (located inside of mouth) will closeup and cheek will heal up to reattach to muscle/nerve tissue of face.

Mike

Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: anniebc on March 04, 2009, 10:21:26 pm
Hi Mike

Good to hear everything is going ok now and that the healing has started..just a shame you had to go through all that..what happens now? is there something else you can try or are thinking about doing?.

Love and hugs
Jan :-*
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: mjmel on March 05, 2009, 04:38:36 am
Jan, there are all kinds of great products out there these days. They get along well with the body even in times of trauma or illnesses. Unfortunately, bio-alcamid was not to be one of them. Bio-Alcamid, thought to be a mend back in 2005-2007, is causing folks all kinds of problems out there. Some just wake up to find their faces swollen up without any kind of trauma or incident occurring. Seems that 5 years later trouble starts brewing for many--and yet some are not phased or affected adverse at all.

My plan: After waiting a few months for complete recovery to occur is then to refill the voids of my left cheek to achieve a balance in my face. I will go with the product, Precise. But no way will I be able to spend that kind of money previously invested. That's all gone and I'm not going to be bothered by the wrinkles and deep lines that will return. Will get just enough to fill the biggest voids just under the cheek bone and that's it.

Mike

(Edited: spelling errors)
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: AlanBama on March 11, 2009, 07:45:38 pm
So sorry this happened to you Mike.   I can only imagine how traumatic it has been.

Hope you continue to do well with your recovery; I'll be keeping you in my prayers.

Hugs,

Alan
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: mjmel on March 11, 2009, 08:17:10 pm
Thanks, Alan. Your post means a lot.
On the mend. No infection present. Waiting for incision point to close.
Mend time: six to seven months.
My face looks kind of like I went to the Final Frontier at WARP 9 >>>>> outside the Enterprise.
 :D
Title: Bio Alcamid Removal from face
Post by: Vagabundo on June 02, 2009, 06:05:15 pm
Hi everybody.

I'm from Budapest, searching for experiences in bioalcamid removal methods. I had this material injected 5 months ago in my mimicry wrinkles between mouth and nose. Since my face and skin is quite thin, aestheticly it has completely destroyed my mimicry, it looks terrible and I can't stand the feeling to have this material and noduls in my face. I would like to have it removed 100% if possible.
What type of methods are the best for removal?
Surgery inside the mouth? Is it dangerous for the facial muscles and nerves? Is it done by cut+aspiration , or cut+scape , or just cut?
Own tissue also has to be removed? Does it cause any problems in mimicry, or is it visible from outside?
How can the material be precisely located?
Is there a danger of infection after the surgery?
What if the product has been wrongly injected in muscle? Can it be removed?

Thank you for telling me your experiences.
Title: Re: BioAlcamid + mishaps
Post by: patientx1 on December 10, 2010, 04:45:23 am
Hi Vaga,

I too am interested in having Bio-Alcamid removed from my chest, in order to have fat-grafts.

Have you found anyone / methods that can do this?

I'm from England by the way.

Any info appreciated.

Regards