I have a rod in my knee and it aches when it rains outside. I have heard other people say the same about metal they have in their body.
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Rain or rain being imminent can affect both temperature and pressure. Metal has a different reaction to changes in temperature and pressure- when material is heated it generally expands and when it’s cooled it contracts. Barometric pressure changes cause changes in fluids in the body also.
So as your body adjusts to the changes, the metal rods don’t change at the same rate, causing aches and pains until things are back in equilibrium.
Rain means barometric pressure changes.
The plates/screws/rods/etc don’t behave the same way in the pressure as the normal bone does so you become very aware of it.
Source: six screws and a plate in my wrist since 19 and a dozen years of being a weather station since.
It’s not the rain, it’s the drop in barometric (air) pressure.
Lower air pressure causes your body to increase it’s inflammation response. Tissues swell causing discomfort. The more injured or scarred the joint, the worse it feels.
Old injuries, surgery, arthritis are all amplified by low air pressure.
Hardware makes it even worse as the metal doesn’t expand or move the same way as tissues so your body really feels the difference.
If barometric pressure changes cause discomfort in these implants you’d expect that sensitive people would be unable to fly in planes, where the drop in pressure is 10x or greater than anything experienced due to weather.
I always thought the whole “my knee aches when it rains” anecdote was nonsense.
This thread has helped me understand why my shattered wrist with two plates w/screws has started hurting and crunching lately.
It feels like when you need to crack your neck to relieve stress, but it can’t crack in that sense. I guess the swelling is pushing on the plates and aggravating the surrounding tendons and muscles.
yea I had a tib fib compound fracture 5 years ago. I’ve got a titanium nail going throughout my tib/fib(shin), and pins to hold it in both my ankle and knee. also have gout. so yea, that leg gets hit pretty hard with the shits
I don’t have stuff but someone I know has shoulder surgery and some implant(s) and when it’s cold, it hurts them like a bitch, almost like the part freezes and movement hurts. I’m not sure pressure plays a part there but temperature sure does
What happens to metals during cremation tho?
My collar bone I broke 12 years ago aches when the weather changes too, but it healed naturally without surgery. I have wondered the same thing.
Dropping barometric pressure always gave me migraines (until they suddenly stopped a few years ago). For 30 years my head would tell me when weather was coming in.
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