Wonderful QOD Staff, My ears have been stretched…

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Wednesday September 19th, 2007 @ 11:47 PM

Filed under: Piercing

Wonderful QOD Staff, My ears have been stretched to 5/8th for several months now with no problems before, but in the past few days they became extreamely inflammed, red, and developed a small bumpy (and very itchy) rash that spread from my lobes to most of my ears, behind on my neck and parts of my cheeks, after that they became slightly oozy and crusted around my lobes. I usually massage my ears with either neem or jojoba oil and have never had any problems with either. The only thing that has been different in the past week were a pair of rose quartz earrings I had just gotten and was wearing for a few days. I went to the doctor, and was told that it was an “infection of unknown origin” and was given an oral antibiotic and bactroban ointment to treat the area. I have never had any problems wearing organic jewelery before and always thought that stone was generally inert, but was wondering if the rose quartz plugs could have caused the reaction, and if anyone has seen that reaction to stone before (I couldn’t find anything in my searches). I apologize for the long winded question, and thanks in advance for any insight on my dilema.

That sounds a lot like an allergic reaction to something, and if you had new plugs, I’d say that was it. You may have been sensitive to something that the stone was treated with - a polish or cleaner used on the plugs, perhaps, as stone is somewhat porous and can absorb chemicals, but people can be allergic to anything, really, so I can’t really tell you for sure. I’d definitely advise against wearing those plugs again, though!

- Lori St.Leone

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