Advice on/experience with cauliflower ear?

[cakemuncher]

Kudo's for his ears, but his face is wrinkled as fook.

Shoulda avoided the sun and used spf daily.

Bas Rutten always claimed he succesfully drained his ears as quickly as possible when this started to develope. If you look at the amount of fight experience, training he has had and besides that having trained other fighters for many, many years aswell, i guess this method prevents cauliflower ears from developing.

 

[woodguyatl]

Hey sherbros

About 5 days back, while training wrestling, I feel like my right ear got pinched or something, and I could feel a constant pain in my ear for the next few days. Yesterday, I noticed that the inside of the ear is a little swelled up, and I could feel like there's some fluid in there. I read up about it online, and it seems like a cauliflower ear developing.

I read that within 7-10 days, the fluid would harden and give it the appearance of a cauliflower ear. I guess I had a few questions for people who have had a cauliflower ear.. mine doesn't seem to be particularly big (ala Randy couture) so as to disfigure the shape of my ear, so I was thinking I might just let it be the way it is. Would icing it help (it's already been 5 days and I haven't yet). My ear still pains quite a bit, would it continue to pain even if it gets hard? And does it impede training going forward in any way? Is there something I should do about it immediately, or should I just wear it as a badge of honor (lol)?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

I drain them and, if possible, then put a couple of stitches through the area with cotton balls like they put in your mouth on either side to even out the pressure and keep the stitches from pulling through. I've done this several times and my ears look like new.

If the swelling is in your ear canal you want to see a doctor for sure. It will begin to effect your hearing and is really hard to fix later.

 

[j123]

Hey sherbros

About 5 days back, while training wrestling, I feel like my right ear got pinched or something, and I could feel a constant pain in my ear for the next few days. Yesterday, I noticed that the inside of the ear is a little swelled up, and I could feel like there's some fluid in there. I read up about it online, and it seems like a cauliflower ear developing.

I read that within 7-10 days, the fluid would harden and give it the appearance of a cauliflower ear. I guess I had a few questions for people who have had a cauliflower ear.. mine doesn't seem to be particularly big (ala Randy couture) so as to disfigure the shape of my ear, so I was thinking I might just let it be the way it is. Would icing it help (it's already been 5 days and I haven't yet). My ear still pains quite a bit, would it continue to pain even if it gets hard? And does it impede training going forward in any way? Is there something I should do about it immediately, or should I just wear it as a badge of honor (lol)?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Get it drained, I did mine at the hospital. Its not just draining it thats the main issue, getting it sealed up so you won't get infected is the main thing. Get it drained by professionals and not a gym bro learning by trial and error. It's your ear, and getting an infection is the least thing you want.

Mine got pretty shitty that small pressure on it had me tapping like a wuss. So thats when I decided to drain it. It took about 3 weeks to heal post-drain. I've worn headgear (ear-guard) since, but I never liked it since it adds mass and gets very sweaty inside; I bought the gear before I got it drained, and it didn't really negate the pain when I used it, I still felt the massive strain with it.

Back in the day when I first started out, I used to want it as proof of manhood.... soon as the pain came with it, I regretted it. Now I can't really wear normal earphones, its almost a bitch to get it inside. But there are times when I miss it and it want it back. lol. What's funny is I went years without any sign of it. Soon as I started focusing heavily on fence work, it came.

 

[Yagripzizweak]

I drained my own with an insulin syringe a few times, and then it eventually just stopped happening. Same for a few of my friends

 

[Eddie Rattlehead]

its weird to be how some people are way more predisposed to getting cauliflower than others, like most other things i suppose. And yes draining and ice should work. Maybe look into a better headgear if you arent comfortable in your current one.

 

[machomang]

its weird to be how some people are way more predisposed to getting cauliflower than others, like most other things i suppose. And yes draining and ice should work. Maybe look into a better headgear if you arent comfortable in your current one.

I was going to ask about this... I've been training around 6 years. I had some fluid build up in my ears a few years ago, it's hardened and you can only feel them if you press really hard around them, but it does not look look like cauliflower ears. My ears are really soft and flexible, I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Meanwhile, some white belts have some gnarly cauliflower ears already. For the guys who got cauliflower ears easily, would you consider your ears a bit more stiff than other people's?

 

[jpak]

Lol my first post ever on Sherdog was about draining cauliflower ear, biggest thing is compression right after draining, I used to go to a doctor who gave me this dumb looking clamp, now if I get it in a spot I can compress, I drain it myself then use magnets, I usually keep them on for 3 days. Done it about 4 times, ears look pretty close to normal

 

[Thomas brent]

Just drained my ear for the first time, there is some wrinkled skin or loose skin does this go away with time or does it just stay like that?

 

[ChickenBrother]

Just drained my ear for the first time, there is some wrinkled skin or loose skin does this go away with time or does it just stay like that?

Skin shrinks back up but as others itt have pointed out, fluid will fill back up if you don't keep it compressed. I drained mine 4 times over a ~2 week period and continued to train but with headgear. It kept filling back up but a little less each time. After the 4th draining I said screw it and left it alone. It filled back up and eventually hardened but much smaller than the original swelling. Today it feels harder and thicker than same spot on my other ear but not glaringly obvious without looking at both ears. It started out as a bump about the size of half a grape.

 

[skacore]

I had the same thing, quite a bit of fluid building up. I took a week off and tried not to touch it at all, and it went down just like my coach suggested it might. Have been back at BJJ x3 a week now and it hasn't resurfaced in months, so far so good.

 

[Thomas brent]

you say that you drained it over a 2 week period doesn't it harden after 7-10 days ?

 

[HansDavidian]

You need to drain them as soon as possible.

I personally decide to keep mine because it makes me look like a bad ass.

 

[ChickenBrother]

you say that you drained it over a 2 week period doesn't it harden after 7-10 days ?

Mine was pretty "watery." It was on the inside top curve of my ear where the skin is relatively thin and it initially looked and felt like a large blister. I ignored it at first but I got stuck defending a North South the next practice and it got agitated and bigger. Took me a week after the injury before I got around to picking up some insulin needles at the pharmacy - by that time it felt less watery and a little "rubbery" but still fluid. I used 27 gauge needles with 1.0 ml syringe (I wanted more capacity but that was the only size they had in stock).

First draining I pulled out about 1.1 ml (syringe has a little overflow capacity so can probably hold about 1.2 ml) and the ear looked completely normal. There was a little bit of wrinkled skin but it shrunk back up by the next day. It also filled back up almost to the original size by the next night. I drained it about every 4 days after that - the 4th draining only about 0.2 ml came out and you could see it was starting to harden near the edge. I trained with headgear for another few weeks and it was about a full month after the injury before it hardened completely.

EDIT: I just checked and I used 27G needles not 21 gauge.

 

[Thomas brent]

i have had swelling exactly like the image above. i have been trying to drain it everyday for the past 2 weeks when it appeared. i used insulin needles but only very little blood came out but and swelling pretty much stayed the same and it still feels sort of liquidy now as well. should i try to drain it with a bigger needle gauge or by leaving it alone will the liquid reabsorb ? i already went to an ent and he told me that it isnt proper cauliflower ear and should reabsorb in time. I dont know if it hasnt reabsorbed because ive been poking it with a needle for the past two weeks. Should i try to drain it with a bigger gauge or just leave it be ?

 

[ChickenBrother]

i have had swelling exactly like the image above. i have been trying to drain it everyday for the past 2 weeks when it appeared. i used insulin needles but only very little blood came out but and swelling pretty much stayed the same and it still feels sort of liquidy now as well. should i try to drain it with a bigger needle gauge or by leaving it alone will the liquid reabsorb ? i already went to an ent and he told me that it isnt proper cauliflower ear and should reabsorb in time. I dont know if it hasnt reabsorbed because ive been poking it with a needle for the past two weeks. Should i try to drain it with a bigger gauge or just leave it be ?

I can't see the image. And I'm not a medical professional but IMO draining it every day is excessive and runs a greater risk of infection and further damage from all the needle marks. Also remember that futzing with your ear too much will only exacerbate the damage. I washed and wiped the area down with alcohol wipes before every needle stick and put neosporin on it afterwards. Would also recommend having someone you trust help you. My wife stuck me with the needle and was able to get a better angle. A few times she had to stick me twice in different spots because the first injection didn't draw any fluid. You want the needle to be below the skin in the thickest part of the fluid pocket.

My first draining was all red blood. The 4th one (about 3 weeks after initial injury) was probably 50/50 blood/clear fluid and the ear was starting to harden. Even if you don't drain it at all, the hardened bump will be smaller than the initial fluid pocket because some fluid will get reabsorbed.

But if ear aesthetics are really important to you, best way is to go to a medical professional and have them cut and drain it and stitch ear together so it can't refill.