The Navel Piercing Diary
So this is going to be a progress diary, to see if I can act like a typical customer that does and does not follow the piercing aftercare advice given, this way I can see how things get infected and heal or how to recover from an infected Navel piercing should that arise.
20/06/11
So Day one to day three, so far so good, however getting it pulled on by others and jumping in a bath full of product was not the best for it as its become sore and inflamed at the top, or the entrance area to the wound.
21/06/11
Today again the top was red and sore, cleaned around it with warm water only, then after five minutes decided to squeeze it, found pus inside oozing out, decided to make sure I got all of it, it was not runny but quite thick, think I got the last of it, used a cotton bud on it again with just warm water, the pain seems to have eased off since removing the pus, my guess is this might happen in the first week or so, if not checked could be the cause of banding or skin break down from within the piercing, so thorough cleaning really does need to take place to prevent this build up, if I had not squeezed the piercing so hard I would have missed this, I will re-check it again in a few hours to see if the redness has died down.
Okay, so checked again its 17:27 still red on the top but no pus, so that’s good the bar in the hole seems tight, not as in no room to move just tight around it, I wonder if it will change and loosen over time .
22/06/11
Well this morning its a bit sore, gave it a salt soak last night before bed, this meant me getting a shot glass and some salt and hot water boiled left to cool a little then putting the whole thing on top covering both the entrance wound and the exit, the heat build up in the glass will cause a vacuum drawing out any pus or dirt, this seemed to help, then did what I advise my customers to do, I put a plaster on the top part of the bar to reduce movement last night and I think this morning that’s helped.
It’s still red and a bit sore but not as bad as the day before, will add more when I get to work later.
23/06/11
Its 14:05 quiet time at the studio, checking the piercing over, the pain has eased off but the skin seems to be breaking down due to the infection that’s set in so now I need to mend the damage, it looks like putting a PTFE bar in if it don’t calm down, have used Saline and Anti Bacterial soaps last night and this morn plus a hand sanitizer, the last one seems to help with the redness, so will give it a few more hours to decide about using PTFE as the jewellery is sticking to the skin.
OK just changed from the wings to a black jelly bar, the pain swapping was errm not so nice, now I have the new bar in I’m getting odd pains around my navel and extending out, so anyone reading this don’t go through what I am take the after care seriously I’m doing all this so in the end I hope you won’t have to 🙂
01/07/11
The infection has pretty much gone after being pretty rigorous with my after care, the skin became very inflamed before as expected, however I did not expect that after it calmed down for the skin to start peeling as much as it has, removed most of the pus and its no longer painful just very dry, thinking or putting a very small amount of water based moisturizing cream in the surface of the skin to help with the peeling, this to me is all new so if others have experienced this with theirs then feel free to comment what happened next with yours, as for me I’m going to try that avoiding the cream going into the hole or Fistula as the correct term for this is called.
04/09/2011
So an update I think is needed, after keeping up the care, changed to a PTFE, bar with PTFE balls, all the redness, and soreness has gone, I have to confess it was a bit touch and go and at one point could see me retiring the piercing, however i’m pretty stubborn.
So finding out that along with the general being lazy with my routine and having “Cough!” a some what hairy belly button, this kept the infection going, so time after time I had to clean and remove the hair and fluff …sigh from my lint trap, to start the healing, now its looking pretty damn good, picture to follow, as soon as my food goes down 🙂 So the moral of this, is real proof, if you don’t stick to the after care, say good bye to your hard earned money and know the pain you endured to look good was a waste of your time and the piercers, as he / she want’s you looking amazing and happy in the end, as they want to be proud of the work you will have on show 🙂
