the story of T
Aug. 2nd, 2004 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanBoy, I've just been a bundle of joy lately, haven't I?
To make it up to you, here is another story. This one is about my tongue piercing.
My first piercings were pretty standard, first my ears and then my nose. When I got my nose done, I actually had the piercer put two holes in my nose and two in my ear at the same time. She told me it was the most she had ever done at one time before. That night when the endorphins wore off, I passed out at a table. In a club. At a Monster Magnet show.
Anyway.
The first time I had ever even conceived of the possibility of getting your tongue pierced I was talking to somebody who had one, and I kept seeing a flash of silver. I was fascinated. I wanted one. A lot.
So originally I had two holes. I got the first one, and after it healed, got another one slightly in front of it. The healing process for the first peircing was complicated slightly by the fact that I accidentally bit it and tore it slightly, but everything seemed to heal up fine after that. So I went ahead and got the second peircing, and for a long time they both settled in just fine.
Then suddenly I started developing a keloid around the first piercing. A tube of scar tissue started growing up from the top surface of my tongue around the shaft of the barbell. I consulted a piercer who suggested making a compress of aspirin and packing that around the scar tissue. The resulting mud, he told me, would be acidic enough to "burn off" the offending tissue. I tried it, and after repeated applications it seemed to solve the problem. So once again, everything went on as normal
I had two tongue piercings for years.
Years later the keloid started growing back. I tried the same solution - the aspirin paste. I tried tea tree oil. I tried everything. It shrank. It grew back. It shrank. It grew back further. It went on like this for months - and then one morning I awoke to discover that the tube of scar tissue had grown right over the ball and closed up.
Oddly enough, the scar tissue seemed to level out after that. So now I had a piercing that only extended out through the bottom of my tongue. It stayed that way until one days the barbell just fell out of my tongue - it had become unscrewed from the ball.
I now had a ball trapped on the inside of my tongue, and there it stayed for another several years. It didn't seem to be hurting anything and I eventually just kind of forgot about it.
Best I can figure, there must have still been an opening in the underside of my tongue and some bacteria got trapped in there. Because one day, completely out of the blue, I started getting this really strong immune reaction. My tongue swelled up. My neck swelled up. My temperature shot up. What looked like a huge blister formed on the underside of my tongue, right where the old piercing had been.
Of course I hauled my ass to the doctor.
The doctor on call listened to my long tale with a look of utter horror on his face. When I finished he wrote me a script for antibiotics and another one for an appointment with an ears, nose and throat specialist. It would have to be cut out, he told me. He waved me out of his office like he couldn't wait for me to leave.
I got home from the clinic and examined my tongue in the mirror. The blister on the underside was even more enlarged and had turned an ugly yellow colour. My tongue was so swollen it was being squeezed by my remaining barbell. My neck was thicker than my head.
I closed my mouth and immediately felt something warm fill my mouth. Purely by reflex I spit into the sink, and ejected a huge wad of thick yellow pus - along with the "chink" of metal hitting porcelain. My missing ball.
Five minutes later, my tongue was normal size. Fifteen minutes later the swelling in the lymph nodes in my neck were gone. My temperature dropped to normal within seconds.
That was five years ago. I still have one piercing in my tongue. With no trace of the other hole.
I shoulda' taken pictures.
To make it up to you, here is another story. This one is about my tongue piercing.
My first piercings were pretty standard, first my ears and then my nose. When I got my nose done, I actually had the piercer put two holes in my nose and two in my ear at the same time. She told me it was the most she had ever done at one time before. That night when the endorphins wore off, I passed out at a table. In a club. At a Monster Magnet show.
Anyway.
The first time I had ever even conceived of the possibility of getting your tongue pierced I was talking to somebody who had one, and I kept seeing a flash of silver. I was fascinated. I wanted one. A lot.
So originally I had two holes. I got the first one, and after it healed, got another one slightly in front of it. The healing process for the first peircing was complicated slightly by the fact that I accidentally bit it and tore it slightly, but everything seemed to heal up fine after that. So I went ahead and got the second peircing, and for a long time they both settled in just fine.
Then suddenly I started developing a keloid around the first piercing. A tube of scar tissue started growing up from the top surface of my tongue around the shaft of the barbell. I consulted a piercer who suggested making a compress of aspirin and packing that around the scar tissue. The resulting mud, he told me, would be acidic enough to "burn off" the offending tissue. I tried it, and after repeated applications it seemed to solve the problem. So once again, everything went on as normal
I had two tongue piercings for years.
Years later the keloid started growing back. I tried the same solution - the aspirin paste. I tried tea tree oil. I tried everything. It shrank. It grew back. It shrank. It grew back further. It went on like this for months - and then one morning I awoke to discover that the tube of scar tissue had grown right over the ball and closed up.
Oddly enough, the scar tissue seemed to level out after that. So now I had a piercing that only extended out through the bottom of my tongue. It stayed that way until one days the barbell just fell out of my tongue - it had become unscrewed from the ball.
I now had a ball trapped on the inside of my tongue, and there it stayed for another several years. It didn't seem to be hurting anything and I eventually just kind of forgot about it.
Best I can figure, there must have still been an opening in the underside of my tongue and some bacteria got trapped in there. Because one day, completely out of the blue, I started getting this really strong immune reaction. My tongue swelled up. My neck swelled up. My temperature shot up. What looked like a huge blister formed on the underside of my tongue, right where the old piercing had been.
Of course I hauled my ass to the doctor.
The doctor on call listened to my long tale with a look of utter horror on his face. When I finished he wrote me a script for antibiotics and another one for an appointment with an ears, nose and throat specialist. It would have to be cut out, he told me. He waved me out of his office like he couldn't wait for me to leave.
I got home from the clinic and examined my tongue in the mirror. The blister on the underside was even more enlarged and had turned an ugly yellow colour. My tongue was so swollen it was being squeezed by my remaining barbell. My neck was thicker than my head.
I closed my mouth and immediately felt something warm fill my mouth. Purely by reflex I spit into the sink, and ejected a huge wad of thick yellow pus - along with the "chink" of metal hitting porcelain. My missing ball.
Five minutes later, my tongue was normal size. Fifteen minutes later the swelling in the lymph nodes in my neck were gone. My temperature dropped to normal within seconds.
That was five years ago. I still have one piercing in my tongue. With no trace of the other hole.
I shoulda' taken pictures.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 02:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 07:50 pm (UTC)HA!
allow me to share my unfortunate mouth incident:
i as well have 2 tongue piercings, never ever had any problems with them
well, i decide to use CREST WHITE STRIPS to brighten my smile and after about a week underneath my tongue (bottom of mouth) and behind my bottom front teeth was all sore and swollen
the box said that it could cause 'mild irritation and sensitivity' so i figured, meh, it will be fine
well, a few days later i woke up and my tongue was solid as a rock and the bottom of my mouth was swollen and so sore taht i could barely talk
i tried salt water, listerine...you name it and it jsut stayed sore
i finally decide that i should go get this looked at because it was now unbearable and i sounded like some sort of nut-job everytime i tried to talk
i had my mouth closed and moved my tongue forwards and the metal beads hit my bottom teeth
suddenly i felt that nasty warm mouth sensation that was indeed a massive amount of puss
apparently the barbells hat hit my teel so hard that it ruptured the skin and aleviated me of my infection caused by those damn CREST WHITE STRIPS
three cheers for piercings!
all hail my sister of the pus
Date: 2004-08-03 02:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 07:57 pm (UTC)2. EW! FUCKING GROSS!
:)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 08:16 pm (UTC)eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Great! Story!
Ew.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 08:20 pm (UTC)I wonder if the ball shifted and prompted the reaction.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 08:42 pm (UTC)Yes, gross, but COOL!
I'd be more grossed out, but I deal with pus too often to be squicked. I'm not even a nurse!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 10:18 pm (UTC)I am particularly impressed at how well your body encapsulated the infection, and how quickly the immune response subsided once it had been expelled.
How did you wash the infected area after the expulsion?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 02:30 am (UTC)Can't remember what it's called off-hand, but it's nasty tasting stuff. I actually rinse with Listerine afterwards because it's slightly less vile.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 10:33 pm (UTC)Yes, I am a sick man.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 10:41 pm (UTC)that RULES.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-02 10:54 pm (UTC)That does, however, increase my fear of having my tongue done. I WANT a tongue piercing, I just don't want to sit there whiel someone sticks a needle through my tongue. Anywhere else is fine.
I need to be unconscious when it;s done
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 02:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 12:16 am (UTC)I didn't think I wanted a tongue piercing, partly because I've heard that over time they tend to wear the enamel off your bottom front teeth. But it occurs to me that now I have no bottom front teeth. I wonder whether it'd damage my denture over time. Hmmm.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 04:57 am (UTC)Ewwwwwwww!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 05:43 am (UTC)Like the Corners of my Mind...
Date: 2004-08-03 05:52 am (UTC)Re: Like the Corners of my Mind...
Date: 2004-08-03 08:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 07:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 08:38 am (UTC)"OH MY GOD IT'S BLEEDING!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? YOU'VE FUCKED UP MY PIERCING"
arghhhhhhh
I had a sliver in my thumb I forgot about for ten years and then one day I woke up and my thumb was swollen ten times it's normal size. By the end of the day it had pushed the sliver out enough that I could pull it out the rest of the way. It was HUGE. After that my thumb went back to normal. It's amazing how the body works like that!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 08:43 am (UTC)I was the reception area of one place waiting for my appointment, and some alternateens were there asking about navel piercings. "Is it going to hurt?" "Yes, this one causes some discomfort." "Oh, I dunno if I want to do it if it's going to hurt."
The woman behind the counter just blinked at them and said, "You are pushing a needle through your skin. Do that in your finger, then come back and tell me if you think it will hurt."
I have a dark spot under my thumbnail from where I broke off a pencil lead when I was something like 6. Gods only know what I was doing shoving a pencil under my fingernails, but it's still there. I suspect there is nothing left of the original graphite by now.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 10:57 am (UTC)I'm sitting here at work with what must be the world's most uncomfortable look on my face. Luckily everyone else is either at lunch or seeing patients.
I'm both grossed out and fascinated all at the same time. This is the same feeling I get when I've watched surgery here or at my uncle's office. Hopefully, I don't do the same scrunching of my nose when I'm there.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 12:39 pm (UTC)Fantastic! ;o)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-04 01:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-04 01:26 pm (UTC)i wish i could share it with my friends, but really, i think only my brother (http://www.livejournal.com/users/servermonk) would understand. :)
^v^