The Definitive Cauliflower Ear Thread (please sticky)

TTT, got my 1st cauli after 4 yrs of bjj. Just had it drained. Good times.. Sucks that I'll probably have to drain again. And from now on, headgear always. Shitty.

Weird how that works...I think I first got it after 4 or 5 years. Never got it before even when I was doing striking on the ground, etc. after about 3 months of daily draining it finally stopped coming back - weird how it works
 
over 3 years later and no sticky yet...lol

post ur ear pics kgb ;D

I'll post pics when I update after I see the surgeon. If they can't do anything, I'll post the most recent pics. If they can, I'll wait and do a before/after set.

EDIT: Here you go

earbefore.jpg

Before.

earafter20110823.jpg

After.
 
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Had my surgery today, still high as a kite from the anesthesia.

Won't know how it's going to look until Tuesday, the doc told me not to remove the dressing between now & then. Will post pics sometime next week.
 
Ok, guys, first post. I'm not doing MMA, just started Krav Maga about a month ago. I'm actually a doctor, so I wanted to share my story but I am NOT dispensing medical advice. I'm not even sure what happened, maybe a forearm rub across my ear, but it started feeling tender over a few days. Then I noticed that it was starting to swell a little. I showed one of my buddies who's a dermatologist and he said to leave it alone, it was so slight, it should resolve on its own. Well, over the course of the next week, it just kept gradually worsening.

I went to the Urgent Care to see if they would drain it since I didn't want to practice medicine on myself. But they wouldn't do anything, just wanted to send me to ENT for the bolster. So I thought I'd give it a try. My wife's also a physician so I got some needles and syringes and had her drain it using sterile technique. All she got out was some serous (clear yellow) fluid, no blood. So I didn't have a hematoma, but a seroma. I tried to hold pressure on it for the rest of the day, but it had filled back up the next am. I was worried about it becoming permanent so I went to the ENT. He said the only way to really fix it was the cut/drain/bolster procedure.

So I had it done. The needle sticks to numb it stung, but once it was numb it was fine. They used this expanding foam that they use to pack noses instead of a roll of gauze like I've seen here. BUT, when the anesthetic wore off, HOLY COW did it hurt. That first night was absolutely excruciating. It felt like someone had a red hot stapler jamming through my ear and twisting it. I had to have him call in some Vicodin. That helped, but it was still very painful all week. I just got the stitches out today after 5 days. It's still burning/tingling a little, and I don't think it looks that much better than before. Perhaps it will look better tomorrow after some of the swelling goes down from removing the sutures. At least I hope so.

But I have to say, after all this, if this happens again, I think I would opt for draining it and finding some creative way to keep pressure on it. I really like the rare earth magnets idea. They come in lots of shapes and sizes and I bet I could fashion something that would keep pressure on it. This cut and bolster procedure just seems barbaric to me. If you're going to have it drained, obviously, you should have this done by a physician with sterile technique. And the ear doesn't get a lot of blood flow, so prophylactic antibiotics are a good idea to prevent infection. I cannot recommend the YouTube video of the guy sticking the lawyer's ear. That was some horrible "sterile" technique and an infection waiting to happen. And clearly if you have severe trauma to the ear with a massive hematoma, you should have a physician take care of that and likely the ENT will need to be involved.

I wear headgear now, and I'm the only one in my class. But that's ok. If it can happen with some fairly incidental contact, I'll take looking goofy over this experience ever again.

First day I noticed it:
1fce065a.jpg


Couple of days later:
6515ab4d.jpg


After about a week:
cf87b3f8.jpg


right after the procedure:
f20574b3.jpg

df55b48d.jpg


And today, a few hours after getting stitches out:
2ab87bea.jpg
 
Yes, much better to look silly in the gym when you're training than to look silly everywhere for the rest of your life. I should do a more recent picture of my ear...looks pretty good from conversational distances, but if I point it out people can tell it isn't completely normal.

Before surgery, I had people saying "OMG what happened to your ear?" from like 20 feet away.
 
That's pretty interesting, a doctor that won't practice medicine on himself. Any reason why?
I'm a welder and I practice medicine on myself all the time, on a few buddies in the past too.
 
That's pretty interesting, a doctor that won't practice medicine on himself. Any reason why?
I'm a welder and I practice medicine on myself all the time, on a few buddies in the past too.
Well, first it's frowned upon by the medical board. Second, you lose your objectivity and don't necessarily make the best decisions when you're working on yourself or family members.
 
I started training teh ufc about a month ago and also started submissionwrestling (no gi bjj) And i've wrestled before.

When I wrestled my ears got sore sometimes. Sometimes they got really sore and i couldnt sleep on that side of the head. Then I stopped wrestling due to continuous shoulder dislocations and now Im doing mma and nogi bjj.

Now. My ears are getting very sore again from rolling and people grinding on my ears with arms, heads and shoulders. And my left ear was very red after my last training session.

Cant see any swelling, or any lumps anywhere. But it does hurt if touch it. Dont know if im getting it or if im just being a whiny bitch.


The fear is what causes it, your fucked.

i actually lol'd at this. Thank you sir
 
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Cant see any swelling, or any lumps anywhere. But it does hurt if touch it. Dont know if im getting it or if im just being a whiny bitch.

Classic case of an either/or question where the answer could be both.

Seriously though, the key is swelling. No swelling = no cauliflower.
 
Classic case of an either/or question where the answer could be both.

Seriously though, the key is swelling. No swelling = no cauliflower.

alright thx hombre,

So i should be on aware of my ears swelling with fluid in them?
 
alright thx hombre,

So i should be on aware of my ears swelling with fluid in them?

Yes, fluid. They certainly won't spontaneously swell with Jiffy Pop.

As a general rule of thumb, I'd be concerned about any part of your body that swells up due to close contact with other men.
 
been draining my left ear everyday for a week, fun times, fun times.

One thing alot of ppl dont say is freeze your ear 1st, i find it makes the whole process 10x easier.
 
Im curious how u guys/girls (lol as if there are any girls on sherdog...) Got yours. If u remember, that is.
 
Im curious how u guys/girls (lol as if there are any girls on sherdog...) Got yours. If u remember, that is.

First time I was in bottom side control, and a guy's heel slammed into my ear when he got swept from half guard into us.

Second time just kind of started small, a result of having had to work lots of triangle and omoplata defense (due to poor posture in my opponent's full guard, which I am correcting). Left my headgear at our Cullman gym and rolled without it for a few days. It got bad, but not horrible. Then at Lutador, I rolled in the no-gi absolute, and my opponent tried to jostle me around in a collar-elbow tie (he was bigger & trying to intimidate me I think) and wound up banging his head hard right into my already-swollen ear.
 
On friday I drained my ear with what i think was a size 20 syringe, and it worked perfectly. Then I ordered a 100-pack of 25s, got them today, I just tried to drained and I didnt get anything out. Then I pulled the syringe out and blood started to pour out. Tried a second time and the same thing happened. So either the blood is becoming to thick, or size 25 is too thin.
 
How long does it usally take before the first swelling appears? Some people seem to get it instantly, others never get it all. Is there like an average time of when into practice you get it?
 
On friday I drained my ear with what i think was a size 20 syringe, and it worked perfectly. Then I ordered a 100-pack of 25s, got them today, I just tried to drained and I didnt get anything out. Then I pulled the syringe out and blood started to pour out. Tried a second time and the same thing happened. So either the blood is becoming to thick, or size 25 is too thin.

Try to find the softest spot on the swelled part. That should give you the best direct access to any fluid. If it's starting to set up at all, the harder parts may be getting fibrous and that's where it's tougher to locate fluid pockets.

Also, make sure you compress it afterwards. Tight ace bandage wrap, or some other means of bolstering...otherwise it will just fill right back up again.
 
Im curious how u guys/girls (lol as if there are any girls on sherdog...) Got yours. If u remember, that is.

First time for me (left ear) I got punched in the ear doing some boxing before rolling. It just progressively got worse and worse.

Next time (right ear started) I was in a guillotine attempt that was more of a crank with my ear caught in it. I didn't want to tap and gutted it out by pulling my head out and the pressure fucked my ear up worse than the other one.
 
Thanks to this thread I got my headgear. Im the only guy in BJJ class with a gi and headgear but I dont care..i want to have normal ears!
 
Thanks to this thread I got my headgear. Im the only guy in BJJ class with a gi and headgear but I dont care..i want to have normal ears!

There's three guys at our gym who has it too, so don't worry hehe
 
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