My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings

My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (Full Version)

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Toppingfrmbottom -> My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/19/2012 12:14:54 AM)
Or mess with them in any way. The piercing holes are over 2o years old. The lobe is painful, with out stimulation, and hot to the touch. And it hurts to touch them. There's no puss, no bad smell. Nothing but the pain and heat. Could it be a mild infection? I don't wear earrings of any kind. I don't stretch them or play with them, or use the piercings at all. They were pierced before I was 2 and they just won't close, probably because trauma to them when I was a kid, at one point had them big enough you could put pencils through the hole.

kitkat105 -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/19/2012 12:47:28 AM)
They probably are mildly infected (collection of dead ickiness inside the holes themselves). I would make a saline (salt & boiled water) mixture and soak them (use a cup or small container) a few times a day and see if that helps.

bemyslut -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/19/2012 4:24:36 PM)
You have just described the classic triad of inflammation. There are a number of reasons your earlobe could be inflammed. Best option is to have your doctor assess it

hausboy -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/19/2012 7:19:52 PM)
Just by your description, TFB, it sounds like signs of infection. You can guess what I'm going to tell you---see a physician or a PA/nurse practitioner (check out a place like Patient First, Minute Clinic, etc.)-

LadyConstanze -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/19/2012 9:44:42 PM)
Had that a few years ago (about 20 years ago), turned out to be an inflammation of a sebaceous gland, you really really don't want to wait until they have to surgically remove the gland, go to a doctor straight away, I waited too long and my earlobe was the size of my ear and of course I tried to squeeze it, lance it and empty it, which lead to spectacular blood poisoning... You don't fuck around with infections!

Toppingfrmbottom -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/20/2012 12:07:55 PM)
I have a telephone appointment with my dr today. She'll decide if i need to go in based on what i tell her. On a side note,why won't my ear holes close up, do you guys suppose? i suppose they are closing, because like i said they used to be big enough to put pencils through. Literally. I used to think it was hilarious to do so as a kid, and now they're super small. but they've been super small for years and are not getting any smaller.

Toppingfrmbottom -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/20/2012 5:47:22 PM)
I talked to her and it hurts less today then it did yesterday, she's not concerned, she said wash it gently in the shower and compresses for any kind of pain.

LadyConstanze -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/20/2012 10:22:33 PM)
I would change doctors ASAP, diagnosing something on the telephone that sounds like an infection and not being concerned is a bit of a chevalier issue, too much of a chevalier issue actually when it comes to my health.

kiwisub12 -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/21/2012 8:57:37 AM)
Sounds like good advice to me based on the fact that the pain is less after 24 hours. Spreading infection or worsening infections don't stop hurting, or hurt less.

LadyConstanze -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/21/2012 12:01:58 PM)
If it is the gland, it will stop hurting for a bit, it might even go down a bit, before it picks up again. I seriously never had a doc who did a phone consultation like this, most insist that they see you at some point later, they might decide it doesn't need immediate attention but they aren't just brushing it off, not even in the UK where the health system leaves A LOT to be desired, they're all too worried that it could be something serious and they'd end up being responsible for saying "Don't worry about it"

camille65 -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/21/2012 7:48:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Toppingfrmbottom I have a telephone appointment with my dr today. She'll decide if i need to go in based on what i tell her. On a side note,why won't my ear holes close up, do you guys suppose? i suppose they are closing, because like i said they used to be big enough to put pencils through. Literally. I used to think it was hilarious to do so as a kid, and now they're super small. but they've been super small for years and are not getting any smaller. I got my ears pierced in 1977, the got infected after a month and I stopped wearing earrings completely. Well they've never closed, they've never healed either. I get recurring infections with heat, a bit of swelling and unfortunately they do fill with a bit of pus (oooh I hate that word btw!). Every single doctor I've asked has brushed it off, well over 5 doctors. And none could tell me why the holes never healed over. I've noticed that if I sleep on one side the entire night then often that ear (against the pillow) will start to feel infected within a day. One thing that helps a bit is I soak a cotton ball in hydrogen peroxide and hold it against the painful area. I've been contemplating going to an actual piercer (originally had one of those mall piercing guns used) and having them redone, I'm thinking maybe if they're properly pierced they will finally heal. There is a very different result between using a gun and a needle, the gun causes a lot more physical trauma to the flesh.

kitkat105 -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/22/2012 12:56:11 AM)
camille - a girl I went to highschool went through a similar thing. Turns out when she got her ears pierced by the gun, the piece of flesh from the hole got lodged within the hole causing recurrent infections. She actually had to see a plastic surgeon who reconstructed her ear lobes, removed the scar tissue. The incision was all of 0.5cm and within 6 months she was able to get her ears pierced by the needle/earring way.

graceadieu -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/22/2012 8:38:05 AM)
Hmm. Maybe you could try putting some hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol on it with a q-tip? I remember when I got my cartilage piercings done as a teenager they gave me some disinfectant that IIRC was just rubbing alcohol and I had to swab it every day for the first couple months. After that was over they kept getting infected and I would just put hydrogen peroxide on them for like a week and it fixed it. (Eventually I got sick of dealing with it and let them all close up, though I don't think the cartilage ever regrew because they places where they were still hurt sometimes if I lay on that ear the wrong way.)

FantasyKisses -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/22/2012 8:44:39 AM)
Sorry, but you should never put peroxide or isopropyl alcohol on pierced holes. You want cream-based Neosporin or the like, or an oil-based product like the original Neosporin or Camphophenique. (I'm sure I misspelled that.) Alcohol and peroxide dry out skin cells, effectively killing them. Unless you clean the dead cells away from the holes, they can fester and become infected. Are you sure you don't have an inner ear infection and your ears, being sensitive at the piercing sites, are reacting? I would get it checked out by a doctor. Especially since you've had trouble with them before. The ears being connected to the brain alone means you want to treat infections with kid gloves unless you're 100% sure they're benign.

Aswad -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/23/2012 4:36:38 PM)
Copper or silver. Thin wire or pin. Round the points if you're using a wire. Take it out at least once a day. Leave it out a while. Soak in peroxide, scrub lightly and rinse in saline before reinserting. Keep it up a week or so, unless you react to it or things get worse (in which case, talk to the doc again). Make sure you have your hair braided, bunned or tied back. Trim any stray hairs that rest against the ear. Get some sunlight on it. Cover the pillow with something and change that cover daily. Don't sleep with this thing in, and try to sleep with the opposite side down. If it gets worse or doesn't help, definitely call the doc again (and by all means get a second opinion in the first place), and make sure you don't get any tears in there from doing this. Done right, it shouldn't make anything worse, and it should clear things up if there's something superficial going on there. That's as close to a "home remedy" I get, and I'd prefer you go to the doc, but if you're not going, it should be worth a shot, I think. Health, al-Aswad.

Toppingfrmbottom -> RE: My ancient earing holes hurt but I don't wear earrings (4/23/2012 5:27:15 PM)
I ran something small enough to get through them and they stopped hurting the very next dayy, andnow days and days later the earlobe doesn't hurt at all and is completely normal.

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