I have a rook and tragus piercings that I got done in May of this year. They were both healing beautifully! But the rook has always been my concern because I read its stubborn. Yes, it hurt on the first few days as it should, and got some bumps along the way, but it was always solved by cleaning it with saline spray 2x a day and the bump solution a piercer recommended. It made it to the point where it didn’t hurt anymore. I could bend my ear without pain. Slept on it a couple of times without anything happening. And it looked truly healed, I was so happy about that and couldn’t believe healing it wasn’t that awful compared to what other people experienced.
Until last week, it had a bump again. So I did what I normally do, clean it with saline spray and used bump oil. However, this time we needed to get on a long plane ride. The first 4 hrs of the plane ride to our layover, I noticed it beginning to swell. But it still wasn’t so bad, there’s still a significant amount of the barbel earring exposed. And then we got into our 14hr flight, that’s when it got worse. When we got to our air bnb, my ear was already red and swollen, and I started to feel pain. I didn’t panic though, I still kept cleaning it with saline spray and putting the bump oil, just like what I used to do when it happens. But omg it just got worse and worse.
I kept trying to ignore the pain I was feeling. I thought it’s just irritated and would eventually go away but it didn’t. Going out for a run even then also didn’t help it. Pus was also starting to come out. So I decided to finally consult a doctor through video consultation and sent him photos of what’s going on. He prescribed me Clindamycin and Doxyxycline that is good for 10 days. I read that I should be seeing some improvement on the 3rd day but there was no improvement at all. What’s getting to me was the throbbing pain and the oozing of the pus. It was also still hella swollen. So on the 4th day, I decided to visit urgent care to understand what’s really happening.
When the doctor inspected it, he said it was really infected and that I need to remove the earring. But from what I read based on other people’s experiences, youre not supposed to remove the earring when there’s an active infection because as the hole closes, it may trap the bacteria and pus, leading to more problems. So I told the doctor, I really wanna save the earring coz Ive come this far from getting it, to healing and now this. I asked him if I could get another antibiotic called Ciproflaxacin. He was having second thoughts because he said it may or may not work because at this point, maybe it’s the earring that is causing the infection that’s why he’s recommending it to be removed. But I insisted, I said I wanna try Cipro first before finally giving it up. He agreed eventually, he gave me warnings. He said if in 2 days, I see no improvement, I really have to remove the earring or else it may lead to an ER visit for IV antibiotics. And we’re paying out of pocket so hearing that was scary. But he said, he recommends having the pus tested / cultured for us to know what were really dealing with because what if all this antibiotics I’m taking isn’t what’s meant to fight of the type of bacteria that’s present. So we agreed. But holy shit, he did not warn me and just pressed my ear so hard to get samples that I was gripping so hard on the chair and felt like I wanted to punch him!! But anyway, when it was done, it was so fucking painful. But I took an ibuprofen before the visit so it eventually went away. Ibuprofen is honestly the only thing that’s keeping me sane right now.
Now I’m into my 2nd dose of Cipro. What I noticed is that the swelling is still there, the redness too, but the pain is more bearable now and the ibuprofen immediately kicks in. It’s probably due to the pressing that was painful but released internal pressure so it somehow made it “breathe”. There’s still pus but I noticed it a little lesser now. I’m still yet to receive the lab results then we’ go from there. But I’m really hoping Cirpo will work so I don’t need to take the earring out. What is everyone else’s experience with this?
