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Originally Posted by TRIANGLEFROMGAURD  So as I was mentioning in another thread I've been having a problem with my cauliflower ear as of late. I've had cauliflower on some of the inside of my ears for a while but, it's never really been a problem I can still wear in the ear head phones and my ears for the most part are rather normal looking. I know that one can avoid cauliflower all together by wearing head gear all the time, this is not the point of this thread so no need to bring it up, and I do sometimes wear head gear.
Well recently the I've gotten some cauliflower on the outside of my left ear and it has been progressively getting worse. Growing in size redness and soreness. The other day not during rolling but about an hour or two later my ear was killing me and then I felt it(**warning graphic stuff coming up here, turn away if you have a weak stomach**) and noticed a little bit of blood, I pulled over to check it out in the rear view since I'm human and worry when I bleed. My ear was really big and bright red so of course I started poking at it and then pop! I mean pretty big too the entire side of my face was covered in well you know. I figured well that sucked but, at least it's done then, two days later bam the same thing.
So my question to fellow grapplers and anybody with any medical knowledge is; what do you have to do to treat your cauliflower ear? Do I have to drain it regularly? Ice? I heard something about steroids and antibiotics as well? If you do have to drain do doctors prescribe needles for that?
Ok hope you weren't eating lunch   |
Sorry to hear you're going through this bro!
Where I was living before two of my roommates were training partners, one a brown belt one a purple belt. At one point we all 3 were dealing with some bad cauliflower ear and we were stabbing each other in the ears and draining the fluid every night for like 3 nights! It was hysterical to the one roommate who didn't train!
But to answer some of the questions from my experience:
Sterile needles will work best, and you will just poke and drain. What we usually do for this is get a few from a diabetic friend or a doctor in the class. If this fails, you can TRY poking it with a pin and pushing to drain but this hurts A LOT.
You will need to do this regularly until the swelling goes away. In the meantime, take ibuprofen and ice to keep the swelling to a minimum. Do this as much as you can to keep the cauliflower from setting in (this occurs when the cartilidge hardens back into place with all that blood still there) and you should be relatively good.
If it hardens completely, it takes surgery to fix. I have never heard of cauliflower ear being helped by antibiotics, steroids make some sense because it would help the swelling but really just drain it. That should do you good.