Septum Blow-Out?
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Wednesday February 13th, 2008 @ 4:22 AM
Filed under: Nose
Hi, I’ve had a 0-gauge stretched septum for perhaps half a year now, which I stretched over the course of about 2 years with little complication. However, I recently stretched up to a 00-ga, and though the stretch itself hurt less than many of the previous ones, my nose has been swollen for a few days and bled a lot when I cleaned it (the most my nose has acted up after a stretch is to be a little sore for maybe a couple hours, and has certainly never bled).
I’m worried that I might have torn the fistula, or worse, blown out my septum (I’m not even sure if that’s possible), but even with the aid of a flashlight I’m not sure what to look for. I also live in a small town where the resident piercing shops are rather shady, and it’ll be a couple weeks before I have the means to go to Toronto to visit my regular piercer. Is there any real way of telling if I’ve damaged my septum…or if it’s just because the 0 to 00-gauge jump is a bit bigger?
It could honestly be a few things to sort out. What I would honestly do is downsize back to the 0ga and do sterile saline solution soaks as if it was a fresh piercing. Then as soon as you make it to Toronto have your piercer look at it. (off-topic who is your regular piercer in Toronto and where are you currently?)
Also know that sometimes in certain sizes and in certain locations 6 months is still too soon to stretch and the body might require longer time. It’s weird that you did not feel any discomfort,etc yet you did the kind of damage that results in swelling and bleeding.
Definitely an interesting situation that I’d do as I said above, downsize to 0ga and mention it to your piercer.
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2 Responses to “Septum Blow-Out?”
Hey, just a quick follow up.
I actually started showing the symptoms of a cold a couple days after the piercing, so the decelerated healing/long swelling time might just have been the result of my body trying to heal the stretch and a cold at the same time. On further inspection I don’t think I blew it out, though there may be a couple superficial cuts.
Thanks for the advice!
Enthean on February 13th, 2008 at 10:58 pmEnthean: The cold can definitely be attributed to what you were feeling. As its definitely not a good idea to stretch/work on an area of the body like your nose, while you have a cold…Just due to the irritation that occurs via blowing your nose, etc.
ideally you should not be creating any superficial micro-tears when stretching…If it occurs you want to treat it like a fresh piercing with sterile saline soaks to work on the healing process of the superficial wound.
Warren Hiller on February 14th, 2008 at 12:17 amLeave a Comment