Keeping a medical device that was inside you — or even a removed body part — is actually easier than it might seem, according to a recent story in the Chicago Tribune.

Just ask Barbara Brotman. Brotman is a senior assistant director of development communications for University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences and a former Tribune columnist. She smashed her pelvis during a Grand Canyon hike when she was 17, but a partial hip replacement kept her active for decades. When it was time to get a full hip replacement, she found the surgeons unfazed when she asked if she could keep the metal cap from the old partial hip. After signing some releases, she was able to take the shiny, newly sterilized cap home.

The Tribune has some pointers for people wanting to follow Brotman’s example. Read more on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.