Please be aware of the fact that this experience contains material that some people may think is graphic, nauseating, or just plain too much information. Please keep this in mind as you read on.
At A Glance Author Steph Contact Steph@bme.anon IAM sweetcheeks When A year ago This is basically a follow up to my former (although badly written) piercing disaster one year later ( February 2005) since I got a lot of e-mails and questions in regards to what and why something like this could have happened to me. Well it could happen to anyone as well seeing as how we all know, no piercing is without its risks. Not that I like to dissuade anyone from getting anything done unless it's truly dangerous or seriously un-ethical.
There was a huge outcry from the public in regards to the alleged piercing related death of the poor girl in St. Johns Newfoundland. Now I'm living proof that such things aren't impossible, except I lived to tell my tale. Not too long ago I have done some serious research about piercings in general and was curious to see if I could find answers to what happened to me. In my previous experience I had yet to go see a Doctor about my condition because I was lacking in health care coverage for one thing and well I just hate waiting to see someone in the clinic and of course I didn't want the lengthy lecture that I knew was coming along with it as well. Okay granted I didn't have the same infection as her but I could have had the same outcome.
About 11 months ago when my infection was at its peek I had just stepped out of the shower when I noticed what resembled something almost like a boil of sorts protruding from the inside part of my nipple where I had previously thought the holes had closed themselves over ( I had gotten it pierced twice). Seeing how my husband is a body piercer I have regular access to sterile needles and figured once I got out of the shower I would lance it out after I removed the skin with the beveled end of the needle. Well turns out my body had other ideas. I think the fact that I didn't have a bra on teamed up with gravity not being my friend the pressure caused it to burst open. There was a gush of lymphatic fluid, puss and some blood and it was the foulest smelling thing I think I have ever encountered. So seeing as how I was naked I hopped back into the shower to clean up the mess and I though well maybe this is the end of it? I was hopeful since my Medicare card hadn't made its way into my mail box yet and I was starting to get worried. I did a warm sea salt soak and went to bed. I paid close attention to it throughout the next few days and a scab had started to form but I could see a translucent bubble that was faintly green behind it. So I removed the scab off with a sterilized needle every few days and drained it myself, did a salt soak and continued to do so until it was what I thought to be fully healed.
Turns out I was wrong again. Upon inspection I had pus leaking out from both piercing holes and in the center of the nipple itself. My Medicare card finally arrived and after a blood test was done I did in fact have blood poising. I pretty much knew that all along they just confirmed it. Although lucky for me most of it had been cleared up at this point since it had been a good couple of weeks of being sick before I could even see the doctor. I was given some anti-biotic to help clear up my blood stream and was told that my body would eventually clear up the abscess on it's own since it had burst open. So I finally had some answers and I figured that since it was leaking so much my body must be doing its job. Of course that wasn't the case either. I did start to feel somewhat better, I did monitor my nipple and I continued warm salt soak in hopes of drawing out anything that might be hanging around.
After doing further research I thought that maybe I had a miss-diagnosed case of mastitis . So back to the doctors I went and was reassured that I did not in fact have such a condition. Needless to say I was relieved because I tell you those pictures in the BME encyclopedia are pretty freaking scary! Although mine isn't nearly as traumatic looking as that either. One must be thankful for the little things in life sometimes I would rather have a cyst as opposed to mastitis. One thing that still has everyone floored including myself is that fact that this piercing was retired well over 5 years ago and was properly healed before the jewelry removal.
However as the Doctor explained it was likely protected by my body for a considerable amount of time since it's buried deep in the tissue and something caused it to finally rupture. I think I was that thing to be honest since I had that burning sensation a few times and disregarded it until last February when upon careful inspection I noticed the green pus leaking out. I can't help but thinking that I have one lousy immune system or my body just secretly hates me and wants to make me suffer all the more. The infection is still there and I was told that I would need to have what has been dubbed as minor but invasive surgery done to remove all of the surrounding tissue. As the other Doctor explained; if it was an abscess my body would have eventually released the toxins into my body and flushed them out on their own and it should have been cleared up. The Doctor thinks that it ruptured on top and not the bottom if you were to look at it as she described as if it was a balloon.
So the pocket of infection is still there and will continue to keep filling up until it's removed. Still not being satisfied with the answers I got since this isn't a new piercing I called Tim who did my piercings the second time around. He said that any number of things could have gotten into my piercing at anytime. Could have been a collection of dead skin cells, soap or it could have been a direct result of my first experience getting it pierced because turns out that he wasn't the most sanitary person around. I think that part of it could have been the way that I cleaned it as well because I later found out that your not supposed to move the jewelry through your new piercing but to just flip it up and down to dislodge anything like lymph that has been left behind and that would help keep soap and such out of it. That could have been the leading cause of my initial infection. However there is no actual evidence that it's directly linked to my piercing of choice. I think that's open to speculation mostly based on the location itself.
I'll never know the answer as to why or how this happened. No one even the doctors seem to be 100% sure. One said it was an abscess or a localized infection, one said it was a cyst. If it was an abscess though my body should have been cleared it up a long time ago. Seeing as how on both trips to the doctors I had to have a needle inserted to drain and try to aid in the rupture of whatever this is that ails me. I will tell you that this process is very painful and hasn't done one shred of good either. This is why there was talk of surgery because whatever is being done isn't sufficient enough to clear up the infection that has lodged itself into my nipple/breast area. Needless to say I don't know who or what to believe anymore since I keep getting different answers which just ends up with more questions that aren't getting answered.
It's one of those rare odd occurrences that you don't hear about too often. All I know is that at one point my body was full of poison and could have killed me and one of my breasts was leaking something foul. Research is your friend, I can never stress that enough and so is proper aftercare. Looking back on this I wish I would have been more educated about sea salt soaks and what not because maybe this could have been prevented or at least not so bad. This is why I urge anyone and everyone who has gotten a new piercing to hold onto it even if it's just for a little while. Any body piercings need to be looked after because they're quite literally open wounds and by removing your jewelry you could be leaving yourself with a higher risk of infection which can in some cases cause death.
I'm all about living for the moment and the whole you only live once theory so grab life by the horns and make the most of it. I have no regrets in regards to this whole overall experience just the odd miss-giving. Just think, all I wanted was a nipple piercing, which I got along with a few other un-welcome surprises along the way as well. So I urge anyone to be cautious and careful with their aftercare and to pay close attention to yourself and to listen to your body.
*Update August 1st 2006*
I am happy to announce that my infection is finally gone or at least appears to be. I'm satisfied and so is my Doctor. I got this infection over a year ago and had pretty much forgotten it was there since it hadn't bothered me the way that it did in February of 2005 when I first noticed it for quite some time now. It was never painful, just terrifying not knowing what was actually wrong. After having it there for 6 months I would occasionally take a look at it and see if it was oozing anything and for a while it didn't and than it would come back and so on and so forth. I stopped going to the Doctors by this point because I was fed up. In June of this year my nipple got insanely itchy so en route to the shower so I took another look at it and attempted to lance it out and sure enough there was a whole new realm of some hard off white/yellow substance that came oozing out. I'm not sure what it was but the smell was horrific. After that I kept an eye on it and did some more salt soaks and so far so goo d. All of the piercing holes are finally closed up and I now only have one hole in my nipple and that's supposed to be there. I will still do sea salt soaks on occasion just to be sure because you never know.