If you've stumbled across this then welcome to one jiujitera's account of training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, different topics, and and competing whenever I can!
04 June 2011
My Mini Battle with Cauliflower Ear
Soooo after 4 years, I finally got cauliflower ear. Which stinks…. The good point, it’s not horrible. The bad news, it hurts. My wonderful fear of needles also made it an entertaining experience. So I had my teammate Joel, who is a medic drain it. Surprisingly it didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would. It felt by far after it was drained. The first day they pulled out 4 cc’s of blood. I immediately started to put pressure on it, and just stared at the needle. Kind of gross. At home I used a finder splint to compress it and keep it from filling with blood again. I also ordered a pair of headgear online to make sure i could protect my ears at least during class. I don’t mind having the little amount of cauliflower ear that I have I just really don’t want it to get worse… Anyway day two I ended up needing it to get drained again, I didn’t have the compression on long enough and it ended up with another bubble underneath the skin on my ear. Robert tried to drain it this time and never again will I let him… It hurt, and it bled out more than it actually was sucked out. Back to more compression with my awesome finger splint. This time I even wore it at work as long as I wasn’t on deck in front of people. It actually almost looks like a really weird bluetooth. A few days and practices passed and i was doing great but accidentally caught a forehead to my ear and it inflamed again. So I drained it one final time and got the last of the gunk out, my ear is hard now and actually looks pretty normal yay!! That being said the two pictures at the bottom are of my ears, the one that I had to have drained is on the left and the normal one is on the right. Like I said not too bad right? It’s just a little bit different.
I have had two caulis and in both cases, just kept draining and draining several times a day (as often as necessary) for about 10 days. I didn't have a finger splint, so I didn't use anything for compression, but as long as I kept draining it, it was fine, and both healed back to "normal." It feels a little thicker or stiffer, but it looks normal, and that's all I cared about.
I have had two caulis and in both cases, just kept draining and draining several times a day (as often as necessary) for about 10 days. I didn't have a finger splint, so I didn't use anything for compression, but as long as I kept draining it, it was fine, and both healed back to "normal." It feels a little thicker or stiffer, but it looks normal, and that's all I cared about.
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