Metallosis patients / heavy metal poisoning specialist
To those of you who have experienced metallosis, did you seek out a heavy metal poisoning specialist to help you through? Or did your ortho know the procedure to follow?
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@hurkey I'm not sure what you mean by "to help you through" - the cure for metallosis is removal of the offending implant. Even if you find an a toxicologist or environmental medicine specialist to conduct chelation therapy, it will be a temporary "fix", the implant will continue to shed ions and particles as long as it is there.
Once the implant is removed and any deposits in the surrounding tissue are cleaned out, the body naturally rids itself of the remaining toxins through the liver and kidneys. After revision, my metal levels fell by 75% in the first 3 months, and were in the normal range by one year.
The bigger issue is finding an orthopedic surgeon familiar with removing the implant(s) and cleaning out all the affected tissue. Have you located one yet?
Thank you for responding; no, I have not located such an orthopedist. I wasn’t looking so much for chelation just an understanding of when it’s time to act on my situation. My cobalt level is 2.4; no symptoms at this time. It has increased one point in the last two years. By “help you through“ I meant navigate locating the correct type of doctor to address this as you mentioned. I don’t feel my current Ortho is qualified. The doctor that did both my knee and my hip surgeries, both total replacements, has retired. (Dr T) This current man, Dr G (in that same doctors group) has only served to order blood tests for my metallosis test every other year. He told me that my cobalt level was at a six in May 2024; but Quest labs sent me my results and I’m actually at 2.4 µg per liter. (!) He said come back in two years; I said how about one?
I’m trying to navigate my way through this and be proactive. I have the added issue of needing to get my BMI down to a safe number for Surgery, so I’m praying I have a year to lose enough weight to have a replacement if needed. I have ordered my surgery records and will have them tomorrow. My surgery For my THR was March 2010. I want to know what exactly was placed in me and try to understand how rapidly this may progress if I can. how did you locate a qualified orthopedist? Maybe that’s a better question. Or were you already with one that was qualified and familiar with metallosis?