i got my navel pierced in january figuring it would have plenty of time to heal before burning man......well it's been over 3 months and its still all fucked up and never looks better......i'm scared it's still gonna be unhealed during bm.......i had no idea it took this long to get it healed when i got it pierced, my piercer didn't warn me. advice?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: piercing
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 8:18 PMWell.. I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV... ;)
Here is a great primer on the healing process for navels:
"THE HEALING PROCESS
The navel is a depressed scar which tends to collect dirt, and if not dried properly after bathing can become subject to fungal infections ie. Candida Albicans (Thrush) even if it's not pierced. Once it's pierced extra care must be taken with cleaning to prevent infections, I can't stress strongly enough that it must be looked after carefully!
Navels take a long time to heal because the navel is on your waist, which is like the hinge of your body, it's subject to a lot of movement and you clothes constantly rub and irritate the piercing. It usually takes 3-4 months to heal, but it can take up to 12 months for some people to heal. Don't be alarmed the only difference between a healed and unhealed navel is a very small amount of redness just around the area where the ring pierces the body, and it's hardly visible. The healing time depends on a variety of factors: health, weight, diet, clothes, profession, and most importantly how carefully you care for it.
If you're worried about having difficulty getting the piercing healed then you should consider getting pierced with a navel jewel as they get knocked around less than rings and therefore heal a lot easier. They are more expensive but I think they look nicer, heal quicker and after it's healed you can change them yourself, whearas you need a plier to change rings and this is difficult to do by yourself.
the first 4-5 days your navel will look fine, then you will start to get a very small amount of redness where the ring pierces the body. You will start to get crusting around the ring, this is just dead white bloods cells from the healing process. The piercing will discharge small amounts of milky fluid, this is not a sign of infection its just the result of you body trying to heal a wound with a foreign object in it. If the discharge becomes thick and yellow, or you develop any pain or excessive redness, this is a sign of possible infection, please return and see me, or see a doctor.
After 6-8 weeks the discharge and crusting should lessen, and there should only be a small amount of redness around the piercing. The piercing is not fully healed until all redness disappears, if you stop cleaning it before it is fully healed you may develop an infection."
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Re: piercing
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 9:12 PMyuck i think mines infected.......im gonna get it checked out but i guess what i really wanted to know from this tribe is...if it hasnt healed by burning man how could i protect it from getting a bad infection from the dust? kinda sucks, i was looking forward to being able to wear bikini tops around in the day... -
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Re: piercing
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 9:45 PMI had my navel pierced a few years back and for six months it was constantly getting infected, at six months it healed perfectly and has never gotten infected again. My advice to get rid of the infection would be, wash it with non-scented non-antibacterial soap. Get the soap actually in the piercing, so get some soap on your jewelery and then move the jewelery up and down, then rinse throughly. -
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Re: piercing
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 9:55 PMI would add to this, laying on your back in the tub and dribbling Hydrogen Peroxide onto it, after you've cleaned it thoroughly.
If you are going to be on The Playa with it not healed, then you could coat it with a barrier of some kind, like something I used for an infected cut.. olive oil with beeswax melted into it such that it made a gel-like consistency. If you decide to try this, make sure the olive oil is heated up in a double boiler so it doesn't get too hot. Then of course, you would put a bandage over it. You could easily decorate the bandage with something to make it look festive!! You could still wear that bikini top. :-) Every day or so you would need to clean it off and put on a clean bandage for sleeping purposes.
If you wanted to use more western methods, the barrier would be an antibacterial gel. Either way, you could totally put something decorative over the bandage, like a big mandala. -
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Re: piercing
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 11:30 PMOuch... Hydrogen Peroxide will corrode stainless so don't do this for a long amount of time... or run some fishing line in there instead of the steel before you peroxide ...
... there is also triple antibiotic ointment (neosporin) which works wonders most of the time, if you are past the salt water soak ...
whatever you do, go back to the place that did the piercing and see what they have to say.
Worst case scenario: You go to the playa with a slightly raw navel:
Tape it up.
Do not let anyone play with it.
Soak it nightly in saline solution.
When you get back home, the healing process will resume to whatever level of miserable it had attained just before the playa.
Godspeed in your healing.
T -
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Re: piercing
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 10:58 AMOuch! Of course.. passivate it to hell and back.. I was assuming she has a -silver- navel ring, which, of course, I didn't know.
Well.. rubbing alcohol is a great alternative.. stings like hell tho.. but it works :) Also Betadine, if you can get it, but it stains your skin red for a bit.
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 12:34 AMBronner's soap. Clean that sucker out with diluted soap and you are good to go.
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 12:52 AMit takes a good 6 months, even to a year for the belly to heal, and I know many people that even after a couple years still have issues with theirs..
it can be that your body is sensitive to the metal in the jewelry, I worked at Hot Topics for a long time.. and a lot of their "regular" jewelry causes issue for some sensitive people..
go to a piercer, get a good piece of jewelry, stainless steel is best until you heal.... for most people..
and, spend the money for the solution that a good reputable piercer sellls..
DON'T put ANY antibiotic stuff on the piercing... it has petrolium base and will only gunk your piercing, and is actually subject to more growth of Ickies.
if you are going to do the peroxide thng... take a sterile cotton ball, and after you have throughly cleasned the piercing, and turn the jewelry, then dab the area with the peroxide cotton ball...
ya don't want to get it too wet, just enough to sterilize it.. DON'T turn the ring after you have used the peroxide.. there will be enough peroxide on the cotton ball that it will have entered the piercing adequately..
KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE PIERCING..... and NO TONGUES or other body parts either.. until it is healed.. also, try and keep your pants from rubbing it.... it may not be infected, but it is likely it is irritated from your pants rubbing it or from touching it...
even body to body friction can cause it to become inflamed..
IF it is hot to the touch and oozing then see your Doc....
Sadly, My Naval ring NEVER healed, I had repeated inflamation of it... and had to finally after 8 months remove that one....
If you are going to the playa and its not healed it may be best to keep it covered.. the dust will make it uncomfortable.. and the risk if true infection is greater, until a piercing and even a tattoo is completely healed the playa dust can cause irritation and even infection...
Check your Jewelry, be sure it is the surgical stainless steel at least until you heal... anything else can cause a chemical reaction with your body chemistry and possibily cause it to at least stay inflammed if not infected....
Talk to your piercer,, and also your Doc, if you have any concerns....
Good Luck.... there are some piercings on some people that just never take and never heal..... You'll have to decide if you are one of those or not... and then decide to keep the piercing or not based on the amount of issue it causes you....
Bare
Tattooed and pierced
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 6:51 AMTry doing a salt water soak in the evenings. Get some natural sea salt, and dissolve a small amount in lukewarm water. Soak your belly button for about ten minutes in the solution. When I was soaking my nipple piercings, I would mix the solution in a cup, and then fill a shot glass and just hold it on there. Then when you go to bed, wear loose fitting bottoms, or not bottoms, and try to stay on your back ( I know that can be hard...I'm a tosser/turner myself).
I would say avoid jellies/oils/etc. as they could trap more dirt around your piercing. If you have questions, go to your piercer (or a more reputable one if you don't trust the one who did it originally). I've found that often doctors have little to no experience with piercings. Their first inclination may be to have you take out the ring and let it heal over, but in some cases this can "trap" the ickiness inside the piercing and cause more problems. See a piercer first.
On the playa, I think the person who recommended rinsing with saline has a good idea. Stock up on the stuff and rinse rinse rinse! -
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 8:31 AMYep, that's what I was going to recommend. Sea salt water soaks work wonderfully for healing. Also, there's a good "piercing care gel" that you can get at most good piercing salons, if you're not using it already. But the best thing to do would go back to the piercer first and check in with them. -
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 2:09 PMI had forgotten about the sea salts, so true, it really works.... better than peroxide,
Bare -
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 2:24 PMoh but make sure to dry the piercing after soaking it! A wet piercing is a breeding ground for bacteria, just so you know.
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 1:22 PMI had a friend last year that burned his foot just days before going to burningman (lots of alcohol and a camp fire). His biggest mistake was running around and helping set up our camp stage even though his foot was not healed. By day 3 of BM he was in so much pain that he couldn't walk. Because of that he had to lie around for 2 days doing nothing until the swelling, and burning, and whatever else was wrong at that point... had subsided.
Advice: Prep well to take care of your belly. Clean it several times a day, keep it covered, make sure you are wearing non restrictive clothing in that area. Take some sea salt and water and soak it every day. The last thing you want is to have an infection in the middle of the week. And if it gets worse - seek help, accept help... don't refuse out of pride or embarrassment (another mistake my friend made).
Just so you know, I also have my navel pierced, so I'm not speaking from no experience. -
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Re: piercing
Wed, April 23, 2008 - 1:45 PMBarring some unusual circumstance, I think that if you take good care of it until then you should be fine by August. I just used antibacterial soap, but others here seem to have had good luck with sea salt. You should also know that stuff just doesn't heal that well on the playa - that goes for your infected piercing, as well as any cut you get just before (like Gweana's unfortunate friend) or one you get there.
If you get hurt at Burning Man DO NOT HESITATE to either clean it well yourself with antibacterial soap and dress it properly, or go to a med station if you do not have those resources available. A small cut can turn into a serious infection out there.
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Re: piercing
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 12:22 AMyeah i was soaking with sea salt water every day for a month after i got it pierced then i stopped doing it so often....i've been trying to start doing it every day again. when i got it pierced, a week after the jewel fell out and i went back and got a new bar to replace it....it seems longer then the first...too long. whenever i sit down for a long period of time it likes to bend to the left side and just stick there and i think that causes irritation. it also naturally likes to be at an angle to the left side. i always try to adjust it but i guess i shouldnt do that. -
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Re: piercing
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 11:02 AMI'd suggest going to a 14 gauge stainless steel ring until ya heal then change your jewelry when it's healed...
just a thought
Bare
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Re: piercing
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 9:01 AMmy first year on the playa, i'd gotten my navel pierced 3 or so months before hand, and was fine. i did make sure to keep it clean though.
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Re: piercing
Sun, April 27, 2008 - 2:42 PMI've got crazy sensitive skin, and had the same issue (it was still getting infected after 7mo even though I was using a sea salt/eucalyptus oil soak daily, and I had to take it out and it closed up with in a couple of hours) I switched my piercing from surgical steel to titanium and it healed up beautifully. No more infections. -
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Re: piercing
Sun, April 27, 2008 - 5:30 PMFYI: Any pure,"de ox" metal (which don't corrode, or do so VERY slowly without a catalyst) would do this, like .999 silver, 24k gold, platinum, and titanium.
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