I just coughed up an O-ring

«« Will nipple piercing make my nipples larger?    Microdermal or Surface Piercing? »»

Thursday May 22nd, 2008 @ 1:07 AM

Filed under: Nose

Dear AskBME Staff,

I am so totally not joking with this one. I just stepped outside, coughed (someone’s mowing, and I’m allergic to lawn grass), and spat out an 8g O-ring.

To back up: I have a septum piercing that was needled at 8g at least a year ago; stretched itself to 6g; and will accept an 8g clear glass plug as a retainer without shrinking. This plug has no flares, so I’ve been using O-rings to keep it in place. Sometimes one falls off and stays in my nose such that I can, um, reach up and extract them. Sometimes one falls off into my lap. But both occurrences are fairly rare. I’ve been wearing this plug as a retainer to bed these last few days, since I currently share that bed, and kissing, etc. is more comfortable for me without jewelry that protrudes.

How did I SNORT an O-RING during the night and then retain it until just before 10 am (I’ve been up since 7:30)? If I can find the staple-shaped Ti retainer I was pierced with, I can switch to that, but do my amazing powers of snoring mean I’ll snort that, too? Worse, I’ve had this piercing for at least 18 months. How many O-rings may STILL be living in my lungs that I may have just assumed fell out on the pillowcase?

Please forgive my emphasis caps, but I’m just a little disturbed. Is this a sign from the universe to switch to the smallest-diameter segment ring I can find in that gauge? Snorting O-rings really can’t be good for my asthma.

It is allergy season in my part of the world, and I have got a goodly number of allergies, so if there were a time of year I would be snoring harder, this would be it. (Yes, I can ask the other person in the bed about this.)

Please, y’all, tell me I’m not injuring myself with O-rings routinely as I sleep. I’m a hypochondriac and I watch House (how about that season finale?), so please put my mind at rest if you can.

Frantically,

LadyCrow

………

Sorry, I had to take a moment to have a good chuckle, c’mon this is QUITE hilarious in the grand scheme of things if you think about it

For starters I’d suggest obtaining a slightly smaller diameter o-ring so its a bit more snugger on your plug. By having it a bit more tightly on the plug it means it’d have less chance of slipping off so easily.

Also sure there is the chance you inhaled a o-ring, but there’s also the chance you simply swallowed it into your stomach, much like how you can inhale or swallow mucous(snot) from your nose that is lodged in your sinus cavity. Now let be make sure I am able to calm you down by saying if you had an actual o-ring in your sinus cavity, when awake, chances are you’d know. Personally I’ve had a the occasional o-ring and other stuff enter into my sinus cavity and it feels very noticeable pressure. It’s not enough pressure that you’d wake instantly up freakin out, but if you were awake and had it in your sinus, you’d know.

So relax and breath and put that Hypochondriac mind to rest ok, you’ll be fine. All you need to do is get a smaller diameter o-ring so it is snugger/tighter on your plug and will not fall off as easily.

Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback