It's been just over six months since my septum was first pierced (the procedure and first three months are covered in an experience here.) and just after writing the first experience it was about time for me to move back home from college for the summer and though I knew that my parents would enviably find out about it I still chose to hide my new piercing. Mostly it was to prove a point: My parents are overcome by the fear my mods will show during job interviews and if I can hide them from my family, who I live with 24/7, for any measurable amount of time I can surely hide it for a job interview, right?
At A Glance Author Uberkitty IAM Uberkitty When N/A Location North Carolina I went out to a piercing studio to get the big clunky circular barbell changed to a something less visible. They didn't have any retainers in at the moment and I didn't have time to wait for the next shipment to come in so I ended up walking out with a surgical stainless steal single flared 12 gauge plug (if you can still call them plugs at that size...) that was secured with a rubber o-ring in my nose and the CBB in a little plastic bag in my wallet.
It took me about a full day to get used to the weight and movement of the CBB being gone. I'd spent three months getting used it to, as well as making little changes in my life like changing how I drank from a cup (I would normally just tip it up when finished but that kept catching the jewelry so I had to learn to pull it away from my face before righting the glass) and relearning how to blow my nose. Wearing a plug I really didn't have to do any of that anymore, I felt like I was back to "normal" and had to readjust all over again.
Two days later I was back home and it was only another two days that I was able to hide it from my family. They asked if I had any new modifications and honest little me confessed and showed them. They hated the idea that I had a "bull ring" since it wasn't something they considered feminine but they were happy it was out of sight and (presumably) out of mind.
So I'd had the plug in for four days and I was still trying to figure out how the hell to clean it. The o-ring and flare were hopelessly in the way, making it difficult to wipe away the lymph after soaking it. While playing around with it in the mirror that night trying to solve the problem I noticed something: a bump had started to forum under the o-ring.
This is the first real problem I've ever had with any of my piercings. This bump was only on the right side, the one with the o-ring, and only formed after the jewelry change. Given I had been doing absolutely nothing different with this with the single exception of this being the first time I'd ever worn a rubber o-ring it seemed very obvious what the problem was. I changed it back to the circular barbell and ordered a proper septum retainer from BME shop. With the o-ring no longer against it the bump didn't grow anymore. It also didn't show any signs of improving. I started doing sea salt soaks again hoping that would help and after a month of that (and wearing the retainer, flipped down, by now) nothing had changed.
I decided to investigate this mysterious bump on my own a little. Looking at it very closely in the mirror it seemed that the bump was pealing from the area immediately at the edge of the piercing out before growing and new outer layer of skin and pealing again. While the left (problem free) side of the piercing was healed the constant pealing on the right side seemed to keep that half in a perpetually fresh and healing state. I poked it with a sterile one time use 27 gauge needle (the type normally used for play piercings) to get a feel for the inside of it. It was hard tissue, not fluid filled although it did bleed quite a bit, and it didn't feel any pain.
Since soaking it wasn't doing anything I moved on to Plan B – Leave it the hell alone. Don't soak it, don't touch it, don't mess with the jewelry. I did this a full month and still the bump would periodically peal but never grow and never reduce in size.
I then tried the tea bag method. I boiled chamomile tea then put the hot tea bag on the bump as a compress. I'd heard wonderful things about this method but somehow even this didn't help me at all. I was starting to consider just taking it out, letting it heal over in hope that would fix it, then just repierce or dermal punching it sometime down the line.
It's worth mentioning that my parents still really hated this piercing, and during arguments would always beg me to take it out (I was even offered $500 to take it out once) During one of these arguments last week I actually decided to say the hell with it and take the thing out. The bump was driving me crazy and taking it out during an argument would keep me on their good side for quite a while.
Within five hours the hole had sealed up. The bump looked more like a crater at first with the jewelry out but in the following days it dried up and shrank until, to my utter surprise and delightment, just completely fell off. At this point the "good" side has a small red dot of scar tissue and the side that used to have the bump now has a large flat white disc of scar tissue, completely flush with the skin. I tried getting rid of that bump for three months so I'm very happy it's gone, even if that means the piercing went with it. I can always repierce (hopefully at a much larger gauge) sometime in the future. Until then I've been sure to only use silicone o-rings because and they are wonderful, though at times hard to find.