'll start this by saying that I'm a Registered Nurse with nineteen prior piercings. I debated for about 2 months after seeing a photo of a sternum piercing to get mine done. I'd never had an infection from a piercing, and I wondered how a surface piercing so close to my heart would heal.
At A Glance Author unraveling Contact unraveling@bme.anon IAM unraveling When A month ago Artist Brandon Studio Anatomic Art Location TN I was in a new city due to being a travel nurse so I went to the most reputable piercing/tattoo shop. Luckily it was just up the street from my house. Brandon and another worker from the shop greeted me promptly when I entered. Brandon immediately started answering all of my questions. I could tell he was educated in his field, so I decided to go through with getting my sternum pierced.
Brandon showed me back to "his room". I sat there while he prepared the tygon and jewelry, and the other materials. He must have measured me 10 times while standing, first from one foot away, next from 3 feet away, etcetera. This was annoying, because I was so excited about being pierced, but in my heart I knew he had my best interest and esthetics in mind. He had me lie down on the table while he applied the ringed forceps to the skin above my sternum. The forceps wouldn't hold, so he had another shop person "glove up" and hold the skin above my sternum.
My sternum piercing had to be the least painful of all of my piercings. It took a minute, as Brandon said that he had to thread the tygon through. Apparently it didn't follow through the first time. This worried me and I could feel my stress level rising. All the while I tried to remain calm, and kept a picture in my mind of what the healed piercing would look like.
Immediately after the piercing was beautiful! There was slight redness around the entrance/exit sites of course, but couldn't have been prettier for a fresh piercing. I was happy. I was ultimately impressed with the time that Brandon spent with me educating me about general surface piercings and about my piercing in particular.
At the shop Brandon asked me how I was going to care for it. I answered "Cleanse three times a day with dial antibacterial soap". I'm a nurse, so I am well familiar about not touching it with dirty hands. Brandon quickly told me "No, you need to clean it twice a day with sterile saline, preferably the spray kind." I was hesitant, because ALL of my other piercings I had used dial antibacterial soap three times a day. Nonetheless, I headed to Wal-Mart and bought the spray sterile saline in the contact lens aisle.
I'd cleaned my piercing just as directed for 4 weeks with no problems. About the end of the 4th week I noticed a small amount of purulent drainage from the upper site on the piercing, and I knew something wasn't right. If there is any drainage from a piercing it will be shortly after being pierced due to the white blood cells traveling to the site to heal. I emailed my family doctor and he couldn't get me in for a check up, so I decided to go see Brandon. Brandon said the piercing looked "fine". He also game me tea tree oil to place on the sites after cleaning.
I should have trusted my instincts and nursing judgment, but, things seemed to be fine for the next week, until I woke up one morning with what appeared to be a "golf ball" amount of swelling on the left side of the piercing. I had a huge induration; it was extremely red and sore. Needless to say I was scared. I emailed my doctor once again and he couldn't get me in. I went to the Emergency Room that I work at and they saw me promptly. One MD did an ultrasound of the area to determine if there was a fluid collection at the site to rule out an abscess. I did not have a fluid collection, so I received an IM injection of clindamycin, they sent me home with a prescription for oral clindamycin .
Three days later, still on the antibiotics the redness and induration was spreading down my left breast and to the right side of my chest. I clocked out of work early and sat in the ER for hours getting intravenous antibiotics (vancomycin). The ER doctors wanted to admit me and I refused because I am a single mother and had no family or friends to take care of my son. That evening I was started on two new antibiotics (bactrim and augmentin).
The next day I called off of work, because I literally felt like I was going to die. I was talking to objects that couldn't talk back. I could hardly move. I made my son eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That night I can remember feeling so bad that I laid on my couch watching my son play video games, and thought to myself.......... "Oh well, if I'm going to die anyway, I might as well put a "non-sterile" warm compress on my chest to help my pain." At that point I took a regular bath towel soaked it with hot water and put it on my chest. To my surprise much of my pain was alleviated. Also when I looked at the towel, it had drainage on it. I kept renewing the warm compress for the next few hours, drainage continued. I probably got maybe 5ml total yellow drainage. I went to bed that night not knowing what would happen in the morning. I woke the next morning feeling better than I had in a week, and was able to go to work. My piercing continued to drain minimal amounts during the day, and I stuffed a 4x4 in my bra, so that I could keep track of the color of the drainage.
I continued on my oral antibiotics just as directed. On Monday the redness and pain were gone and only the slightest amount of serousangunious drainage.. It was Labor Day so my doctor was closed. However on Tuesday I followed up with my family doctor because the induration remained. The MD said that the induration is simply scar tissue build up that could take "a while" to go away. She couldn't give me a time frame, but said "maybe a month". The MD also said that my piercing is also headed for the right direction and looking good.
I just finished my oral antibiotics today. I do notice a slight reduction in the induration which is good. This is very good compared to the "golf ball" on my chest just over a week ago. The induration is not noticeable when you look at my chest, only I know it is there when I touch my fingers to my chest.
I would like to say that I do not think the infection I had was a cause of the piercer or the technique. After all my infection happened a month after the initial piercing. My doctors and I strongly believe that the infection was caused by the environment that I work in. I work in a large inner city emergency department where there are a lot of resistant bacteria, and quite possibly those germs got to my chest through my v-neck scrub shirt, or quite possibly I even touched the surrounding area with "germy" hands.
I've "googled" sternum piercing infections extensively and have not found a single reference. I would like this article to become more prominent. I am utterly sad that the infection happened to me on my 20th piercing, but I am happy that I had an opportunity to educate several doctors at my large teaching facility, emergency department regarding piercing and infection.
My sternum piercing remains in place, and appears completely healed. (Only I can feel the induration). My piercer, Brandon wants me to get the tygon changed soon because after a certain amount of time it begins to break down. I agree and I'd love to have a surface bar with clear gems at the end, but I think I'll wait a week or so. What was really cool is that when I last talked to Brandon on the phone about my piercing he remembered that I had originally mentioned about 6 weeks ago that I wanted gems on the end of my surface bar. I was super happy that he remembered. Like I said, Brandon did pay A LOT of attention to detail.
I have plenty of photographs, from first pierced, to infected, to healing, to now, and I'd like to offer them to a special "infection" area of BME if they are interested.