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Heavy metals blood test results for Metal on Metal hip joint

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Oct 6, 2023 | Replies (97)
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@boo333

Wondering what type of physician is open enough to oversee ordering/monitoring the blood work for cobalt and chromium toxicity? I have slightly toxic levels of both 2° to two hip replacements and one revision over a 16 year period. My components are intact though 2° to sciatic pain, blood work was ordered via a hip revisionist to be certain that pain was not coming from malfunctioning components in hip prior to my having back surgery. Components looked fine but cobalt and chromium both elevated. BUT no one seems to know how to deal with this issue other than revision surgery, which technically I do not need (and was not offered) as hips are intact. Is there no way to remove these excess metals from my system? The hip revisionist, my PC and my rheumatologist all state they have no idea how to deal with this issue. I have been treated for "Lupus" for years, though it is undetermined if I truly have Lupus. I suffer thyroid issues, overall hormone imbalance,
fibromylgia type symptoms and chronic pain throughout my body, as well as having a rare breast tumor develop in my right breast, a cystosarcoma phyllodes tumor, non cancerous thankfully. Any info would be helpful. Ty!

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Replies to "Wondering what type of physician is open enough to oversee ordering/monitoring the blood work for cobalt..."
Sue, Volunteer Mentor | @sueinmn | Dec 29, 2022

Hello, and welcome to Mayo Connect. We are a community trying to live our best lives with a variety of conditions, and to help one another along the way. Your story sounds a bit like mine, except that I only had my implants for 4 years before problems began.

I lived for a few years with elevated chromium & cobalt levels - from the time of the initial test until the one just pre-revision surgery (5 months) the levels increased by 20%. Among others, one of the side effects was thyroid issues, another chronic persistent pain. Radiologically, my hip implants looked to be intact, so I did not want to believe I needed to undergo 2 major surgeries, and did endless research about how to manage without.

Here was my conclusion - there is no known chelation therapy, supplement or other technique for eliminating chromium & cobalt. It must be done through elimination via the kidneys & bloodstream. The metal-on-metal hips will continue to shed the ions into the body, causing the levels to remain or rise, depending on the amount of friction.

I had revision (turned out to be replacement) surgery on both hips. What the surgeons found was seriously deteriorated tissue - both fat & muscle - near the hips, degrading bone, inflamed tendons. Over a period of one year, my metal levels fell to normal. My thyroid issues resolved ( 30 days before doing an ablation & being on meds the rest of my life.)

However, as the result of the metal poisoning, I have an untreatable tremor which is getting worse, an unstable heart rate, chronic over-reaction to any inflammation, and I now hyper-react to every vaccine.

So, clinically my hips were intact, but they were poisoning my body. I am glad I had them replaced, and wish I would have done it 5 months earlier when I learned of the problem.

Has your metal level been monitored over time? What led to the initial testing?
Sue

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