What to do with my medical hardware

June 12, 2016 6:42 PM

I broke my elbow bad enough that required a plate a couple of screws. A couple of months later I had said plate screws taken out. I was lucky enough to keep all hardware and currently have it sitting in a box. The plate it's self is about 7 inches long and has a slight curve that went around the tip of my elbow, with all screws varring in length from 1 inch to 4inches . I'm looking for something creativity to do with the hardware now, any ideas are helpful. Thanks
posted by bigbadbehr to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Attach it to a 3D printed anatomy model and display it in your living room.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 6:59 PM on June 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Shadow box on a mannequin arm?
posted by cecic at 7:20 PM on June 12, 2016

Get a skeleton, obvs.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:29 PM on June 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Whatever you do, make it portable enough that you can whip it out and ask people "Hey, do you want to hold something that used to be inside my body?"
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:37 PM on June 12, 2016

Bend the plate so the ends are less than two inches apart. Weld the screws to the outside. Enjoy your badass armlet/bracelet.
posted by contemporarySlob at 7:55 PM on June 12, 2016

Skeleton arm with plate attached, the whole thing encased in lucite.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:16 PM on June 12, 2016

Heh, my jobby job is designing orthopedic hardware like that, and I have a drawer full of the stuff at home (mostly scrapped for dimensional tolerancing). I have a titanium toe plate on my key chain that's a conversation starter. I have a cobalt chrome concentric humeral head as a paperweight. I have a bunch of humeral stems that I'm looking to do something with. I have polished and unpolished radial (elbow) heads, and when I get enough they're going to be pawns in a chess set.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:49 AM on June 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've seen some beautiful knives made out of hip replacements.

Neck knives are really in right now and come in handy more often than you'd think!
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:29 AM on June 13, 2016

Statement necklace!
posted by feistycakes at 9:12 AM on June 13, 2016

Have it encased in Lucite and use it on your desk.
posted by AugustWest at 9:49 AM on June 13, 2016 [1 favorite]