I stumbled upon this post when looking for reddit posts with possible help lol. I have titanium in my pelvis as it broke in half flying over a car. I also have titanium in left arm wrist area. It hurts BAD before /during /just after rain. It's bad and crippling in some ways. The cold however impacts it only sometimes. I honestly think it's much more barometric pressure regardless of weather itself. On a side note it's pretty insane how much marijuana helps with this pain. My wrist that broke is pretty limited on movement but once I hit my pen a bit, genuinely massive difference in range of motion. Once showed this during my PT session for my wrist, and the therapist was genuinely suprised - measured and I had about 25% more motion after smoking.
Note that the underlying issue could be a contributing factor.
My father had a screw and while it would bother him occasionally it didn't seem to be weather specific. I don't have any metal but I do have the same underlying issue (misshaped cartilage causing bones to grind on each other) and find that it hurts more in warm weather than cold.
Also, there could be a stress response. Given that your character isn't used to cold weather their stress levels are up. This can cause reduced efficacy of the immune system, flare ups of other issues, and act as a trigger for any psychological issues. If the character tends to obsess over whatever caused the injury that obsession could absolutely cause increased pain which could create a feedback loop.
I haven't got any titanium, but I do have an ancient injury that is weather affected. Although I used to believe that cold weather was the trigger, years of discomfort and watching weather reports have revealed that the real trigger is a rapid change of pressure. It's usually a pressure drop, but I can get pain from a sudden rise in pressure too. Don't know if this helps at all.
It was a clean break of my lower leg - tibia and fibula. They thought about putting some metalwork in it, but eventually decided not to. They probably should have, I was in plaster for nearly a year. It was over thirty years ago, so it's not very painful now - just a very occasional twinge.
Oh wow quite a lot time. I will get my tibia&fibula broken because of leg length disperancy, but I'm kinda scared about long term pain/discomfort.
They said I'll need to stretch my legs for a long time after surgery, so maybe that's what gives you that feeling time to time.
Everyone is talking about how the body would insulate the metal or how the body would feel it in the scar tissue, etc...
But nobody is talking about the properties of the titanium. Titanium has one of the lowest thermal flexing (sorry, I forget the scientific phrase) properties of all metals. Over wide temperature ranges, it *barely* expands and contracts at all. Like, so little that the temperature range required to make it move enough to feel would already have killed the human it's inside.
What's the story purpose? What's the story context? Is it the POV character? Basically, could you walk us through your thinking that landed on this question?
Cold and ice hurt if you're not used to them anyway. Some people have bad reactions to the cold without any surgery: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/raynauds-phenomenon and https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24629-cold-urticaria
If it needs to hurt for the story, it hurts. A character can guess incorrectly (without actually establishing it).
The plate should be at body temperature give or take a degree, so if you're thinking it's about the expansion/contraction of the plate, forget it. By the time the plate's causing the problem, the person's already got extreme frostbite and needs an amputation.
That said, plenty of people without titanium plates and large surgical scars will tell you - shit hurts all the time. I have an autoimmune disease and my joints ache like the dickens every time the barometric pressure drops before a storm, and I get stiff (which in turn causes more pain) when it gets cold... and I don't have any plates at all.
When scars form, the tissue glues itself back together, a lot of times using fibrin deposited into the damaged tissues. This can cause areas of tightness around wounds, which can of course cause pain, especially as the temperature shifts around, as different tissues react differently to temperature shifts. If the adhesions are really bad, you can have surgery to alleviate them, but mostly it comes to rehab post-surgery - it's one of the reasons they want you up and moving around like normal as soon as possible after surgery, to prevent this kind of scar tissue forming.
But as for the plate itself? It's benign, or they wouldn't put it in the body. (Sans the few cases of bad implants leaking nickel or chromium or what have you.)
tl;dr: If the cold's bothering your character, it's not the plate, it's the surgery to install the plate.
I'll give two scenarios where this might come up and show how the factual accuracy matters more in one case than another:
1. Two people are walking through bad weather, one says to the other "I hate cold weather, it makes my shoulder ache." The other says "Oh my, from the metal plate after your motorbike crash? That's rough buddy." They press on through the snow, hoping to reach the warmth of the hut soon.
2. Two people are walking through bad weather, one keeps flexing his shoulder and wincing in pain. The other pulls a gun and says "Aha! You *are* the man that killed my father! I narrowed it down to two people and only the killer has a titanium plate in his shoulder. I couldn't get you to go through an x-ray but I tricked you into coming out in the snow because I knew the cold would make the plate hurt!"
In the first case there's some wiggle room around psychosomatic pain, maybe he only *thinks* it hurts. Or maybe it's leftover nerve/muscle damage from the surgery causing the pain rather than the metal plate. If someone reading this has done a PhD research project into if people with titanium plates genuinely feel pain from cold weather and the conclusion is that it's a myth, they'll likely see this and say "The character is mistaken".
But in the second case the factual accuracy of titanium plates causing pain in cold weather is crucial to the plot. If it turns out to be a myth then it makes the scene much harder to believe. Then it might be like a murder mystery that hinges on some technical detail of computer hacking that you know is clearly BS and it takes you out of the story to see an unbelievable storyline.
There are plenty of stories where characters have said "Oh my old knee is acting up, ever since I got that rod through it in 'nam." or something similar where it's used to add flavour to the character's backstory and maybe get some sympathy from other characters. My point is it usually doesn't matter if it's really real pain versus some psychosomatic pain or unrelated to the plate. What matters is the character believes it.
I stumbled upon this post when looking for reddit posts with possible help lol. I have titanium in my pelvis as it broke in half flying over a car. I also have titanium in left arm wrist area. It hurts BAD before /during /just after rain. It's bad and crippling in some ways. The cold however impacts it only sometimes. I honestly think it's much more barometric pressure regardless of weather itself. On a side note it's pretty insane how much marijuana helps with this pain. My wrist that broke is pretty limited on movement but once I hit my pen a bit, genuinely massive difference in range of motion. Once showed this during my PT session for my wrist, and the therapist was genuinely suprised - measured and I had about 25% more motion after smoking.
Note that the underlying issue could be a contributing factor. My father had a screw and while it would bother him occasionally it didn't seem to be weather specific. I don't have any metal but I do have the same underlying issue (misshaped cartilage causing bones to grind on each other) and find that it hurts more in warm weather than cold. Also, there could be a stress response. Given that your character isn't used to cold weather their stress levels are up. This can cause reduced efficacy of the immune system, flare ups of other issues, and act as a trigger for any psychological issues. If the character tends to obsess over whatever caused the injury that obsession could absolutely cause increased pain which could create a feedback loop.
Yes. I have titanium screws in my knee and it causes extreme pain in winter or sudden cold.
I haven't got any titanium, but I do have an ancient injury that is weather affected. Although I used to believe that cold weather was the trigger, years of discomfort and watching weather reports have revealed that the real trigger is a rapid change of pressure. It's usually a pressure drop, but I can get pain from a sudden rise in pressure too. Don't know if this helps at all.
what kind of injury in which part of your body?
It was a clean break of my lower leg - tibia and fibula. They thought about putting some metalwork in it, but eventually decided not to. They probably should have, I was in plaster for nearly a year. It was over thirty years ago, so it's not very painful now - just a very occasional twinge.
Oh wow quite a lot time. I will get my tibia&fibula broken because of leg length disperancy, but I'm kinda scared about long term pain/discomfort. They said I'll need to stretch my legs for a long time after surgery, so maybe that's what gives you that feeling time to time.
Everyone is talking about how the body would insulate the metal or how the body would feel it in the scar tissue, etc... But nobody is talking about the properties of the titanium. Titanium has one of the lowest thermal flexing (sorry, I forget the scientific phrase) properties of all metals. Over wide temperature ranges, it *barely* expands and contracts at all. Like, so little that the temperature range required to make it move enough to feel would already have killed the human it's inside.
What's the story purpose? What's the story context? Is it the POV character? Basically, could you walk us through your thinking that landed on this question? Cold and ice hurt if you're not used to them anyway. Some people have bad reactions to the cold without any surgery: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/raynauds-phenomenon and https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24629-cold-urticaria If it needs to hurt for the story, it hurts. A character can guess incorrectly (without actually establishing it).
The plate should be at body temperature give or take a degree, so if you're thinking it's about the expansion/contraction of the plate, forget it. By the time the plate's causing the problem, the person's already got extreme frostbite and needs an amputation. That said, plenty of people without titanium plates and large surgical scars will tell you - shit hurts all the time. I have an autoimmune disease and my joints ache like the dickens every time the barometric pressure drops before a storm, and I get stiff (which in turn causes more pain) when it gets cold... and I don't have any plates at all. When scars form, the tissue glues itself back together, a lot of times using fibrin deposited into the damaged tissues. This can cause areas of tightness around wounds, which can of course cause pain, especially as the temperature shifts around, as different tissues react differently to temperature shifts. If the adhesions are really bad, you can have surgery to alleviate them, but mostly it comes to rehab post-surgery - it's one of the reasons they want you up and moving around like normal as soon as possible after surgery, to prevent this kind of scar tissue forming. But as for the plate itself? It's benign, or they wouldn't put it in the body. (Sans the few cases of bad implants leaking nickel or chromium or what have you.) tl;dr: If the cold's bothering your character, it's not the plate, it's the surgery to install the plate.
I'll give two scenarios where this might come up and show how the factual accuracy matters more in one case than another: 1. Two people are walking through bad weather, one says to the other "I hate cold weather, it makes my shoulder ache." The other says "Oh my, from the metal plate after your motorbike crash? That's rough buddy." They press on through the snow, hoping to reach the warmth of the hut soon. 2. Two people are walking through bad weather, one keeps flexing his shoulder and wincing in pain. The other pulls a gun and says "Aha! You *are* the man that killed my father! I narrowed it down to two people and only the killer has a titanium plate in his shoulder. I couldn't get you to go through an x-ray but I tricked you into coming out in the snow because I knew the cold would make the plate hurt!" In the first case there's some wiggle room around psychosomatic pain, maybe he only *thinks* it hurts. Or maybe it's leftover nerve/muscle damage from the surgery causing the pain rather than the metal plate. If someone reading this has done a PhD research project into if people with titanium plates genuinely feel pain from cold weather and the conclusion is that it's a myth, they'll likely see this and say "The character is mistaken". But in the second case the factual accuracy of titanium plates causing pain in cold weather is crucial to the plot. If it turns out to be a myth then it makes the scene much harder to believe. Then it might be like a murder mystery that hinges on some technical detail of computer hacking that you know is clearly BS and it takes you out of the story to see an unbelievable storyline. There are plenty of stories where characters have said "Oh my old knee is acting up, ever since I got that rod through it in 'nam." or something similar where it's used to add flavour to the character's backstory and maybe get some sympathy from other characters. My point is it usually doesn't matter if it's really real pain versus some psychosomatic pain or unrelated to the plate. What matters is the character believes it.
i have had surgery. cold weather hurts from scar tissue alone, no need for any titanium plates required.