Anything that comes out of your foot can’t be good, especially if it’s something that once held your bones in place. A 26-year-old man in Portland, Ore., recently had a 1.5-inch surgical screw protrude through the callus skin of his right foot nine months after surgery. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, broke his right foot at last year’s Burning Man festival and needed 10 screws to hold his bones in place.

"I was spinning my friend around and tripped, pinning my right foot down with my left, so my body spun around but my foot didn’t and I broke two metatarsals," he told BuzzFeed Life. Post-surgery, he admitted his foot started to bulge out more, so he could tell it was the head of the screw and it hurt, especially since it was "rubbing against the top of my shoes and socks." "I woke up and the callus skin had rubbed off and you could just see the screw coming out of my foot. The weirdest thing was that it didn’t hurt anymore."

The man’s unusual case led Reddit user vontimber to post the thread, “My friend has screws in his foot. One of them poked out recently," showing very graphic photos of the injured foot and the screw. It was when his friend felt the hardware under the skin that he sought help from his orthopedic to have the screw surgically removed.

Screw in foot
Screw emerges from man's foot nine months after surgery. Reddit User vontimber / Via i.imgur.com
Screw removed
Screw removed from man's foot. Reddit User vontimber / Via i.imgur.com

Typically, patients who have screws inserted in their ankle or foot during surgery do not have problems and tend to keep the hardware in forever. However, when patients usually see a doctor, it’s because they’re very uncomfortable about the whole situation. Dr. Christopher Hubbard, the chief foot and ankle surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told BuzzFeed Life, “But if you feel it pushing against your skin in an uncomfortable way, you need to see your doctor to assess the problem.”

Screws in foot
Screws in man's foot. Reddit User vontimber / Via i.imgur.com
Screws in man's foot
Screws in man's foot. Reddit User vontimber / Via i.imgur.com

Luckily for the Oregon man, he made a speedy recovery and plans to remove the other nine screws, now that his bones have healed properly.