I have read all the posts about too much cleaning etc. I think too much cleaning is not the cause of ALL problems. really...
well, in my case, when i got my navel piercing, the piercer put on the clamps (tight enough to still have marks till today- two weeks later) and then pierced me. when he went to insert the barbel (about thirty seconds after the needle) he said, "oh no"...you have swollen instantly and this will be difficult. well, he then crammed the externally threaded stainless steel barbell in.. about 10 pushes finally did it.
Could the clamps being very tight have caused my immediate swelling?
i had a light pink color about half a centimeter from each side of both holes. i did my two cleanings with satin each day and the red spots gradually darkened somewhat. i also used one or two salt water soaks (1 4 teaspoon per cup of hot warm water) after about day four. on day five i was wondering why the area was so red and not going away. i added a wee tiny amount of tea tree oil to my satin cleanser. the next morning the red spots had shrunk a little and were also darker. i also had a white ring about 2 mms away from the holes and the area immediate to the holes had a little bit of a raised (partially shiny) small bump...very slight though.
the piercing simply did not look healthy and others who saw it said its too much redness.
my piercer advised me to soak in hot epsom salts (a quarter of epson salts to water. i did this for 2 days and there was little change. i had no discharge whatsoever and still do not till now, 2 weeks later.
i visited another piercer who told me that i am healing very well. he said to stop cleaning. to use vitamin e oil on the outside and only clean every couple days with my satin cleanser. he said that the barbell moves well and everything is good.
so, that night i did not clean and in the morning the redness spread. when i wet the barbell with the intention to clean it i noticed some goo on the steel. so, i cleaned and then soaked in the epsom salts. the discharge or skin or whatever it was went away.
i showed my piercing to the original piercer and of course he blamed it on the miniscule amount of tea tree oil. of course he would not blame anything on himself such as extreme trauma. he said to continue with two or three times per day of the epsom salts and the redness would go away.
i have, for the last three days, used three epson salt soaks per day. used satin cleanser before two of the soaks and try always to keep the vitamin e oil on the outside.
the redness has become slightly smaller and a bit less dark. however, it is quite red for about 5 mms on each side of the holes. actually it is a lower belly piercing and the redness is only on the inside part of the holes, not the outide (above where the barbell sits inside me). the clamp marks have finally been soothed by the vitamin e oil and are not visible anymore and the white ring is also gone. except for the redness and slight bump on the inside part of the holes the piercing looks healthier. i dont have pain or heat and if i pressed fairly hard on the holes i might feel some slight discomfort.
so, what do you think the problem is. where did it come from, in your opinion. and, what would your opinion be as far as the aftercare i should proceed with. remember, when i did stop the aftercare some sort of infection seemed to appear immediately. however, i would appreciate your opinion. did the piercer do something incorrectly, should i possibly try polysporin? perhaps this is an infection that i am somehow controlling. perhaps the ripping of the inside of the piercing caused some trapping of bacteria.
i find it truly AMAZING how in north america people use externally threaded barbells, and wait for so long to insert them after the needle.
First of all, many piercers in north america do NOT know how to properly pierce. They are generally self taught or learn from someone who self taught and do not understand what they are doing and cause trama to unsuspecting clients.
We do NOT use a barbell to do the navel piercing, we use a hoop because the body's first response to an injury (and a piercing is an injury) is to SWELL! The clamps may have been too tight but that again is a sign of incompetence not increased swelling.
We use a needle with an open end so that the ring can be connected to the needle and inserted, safely and quickly into the newly made piercing. All this takes a matter of 2 seconds... not 30 seconds after the needle was inserted. So your piercer was not knowledgeable about what he had to do and therefore caused you unnecessary trama to your tissues.
You wrote that you do not believe that the problems you experienced were caused by overcleaning, yet, you have done everything that we strongly recommend not to do. Salt water of any type, which includes epsom salts is damaging to the body. It irriates and this means redness and developing the bump from over moving the jewellery. Tea tree oil is good for many problems but not for piercings. Vitamin E oil is also great for the skin, but not for piercings. If it got inside the piercing, it would have contributed to the problems you experienced.
An infection is only cured by taking antibiotics and since you did not write this in your extensive post, we can safely assume that you did not take any. THEREFORE, you did NOT have an infection... just a serious irritation!
The reason why the spots became darker is because of the damage you caused by using all the salt products. You used too high of a concentration of salt to water and this causes a hypertophic environment and draws out the fluid inside the body leaving the dark areas.
If you had just followed our aftercare, you may have avoided some of your problems. Pink to red colour after the piercing is normal as you did cause an injury and the body is responding accordingly. This may continue for a few days because of the tenderness but will go away, as long as you do not do more damage. Using the salt water (or epsom salts) increased the irritation and so the redness. The fact that you developed the bump so quickly is a testament to your overcleaning.
So if you want your piercing to become healthy... PLEASE STOP USING EVERYTHING ON YOUR PIERCING! Let your body heal itself. You can put a warm compress to help soften the crusties that will form around the jewellery and then take a Q-tip to remove them. You may notice an increase in discharge and this is normal as your body is trying to expell the irritation through the barbell.
Polysporin is no longer going to have any positive effect on your piercing and we do NOT recommend using it.
