Cauliflower ear

[Oso]

I don't have it real bad, minimal enlargement but definitely hardening of a good portion of my upper to middle ear lobes.

but, it seems as if the opening to my ear canals has gotten smaller...ear phones are having a harder time fitting...especially the newer ones that have the semi-collapsible pads instead of foam.

anyone else experience this?

[TenTigers]

what...?:D

[mickey]

Hi Oso,

Cauliflower ear was usually associated with wrestlers back in the day. Did you do anything to traumatize the area? If you have not, I very strongly suggest that you have it looked at. Either way, have it looked at. That is really something you should not wait on doing either. You could be having a reaction to something.


mickey

[Oso]

don't the ears and nose continue to grow throughout our lives?

i'm thinking a combination of that and the scar tissue from the cauliflower ear.

[mickey]

Good Brother,

Have it checked out.

For you to make mention of it in the first place shows your concern about it.

Honor your concern with appropiate action.

mickey

[Lucas]

don't the ears and nose continue to grow throughout our lives?

i'm thinking a combination of that and the scar tissue from the cauliflower ear.

not just the ears and nose brother not just the ears and nose...;)

[MasterKiller]

don't the ears and nose continue to grow throughout our lives?

i'm thinking a combination of that and the scar tissue from the cauliflower ear.

Cartilage in the nose and ears thickens as you age, iirc.

[Oso]

Cartilage in the nose and ears thickens as you age, iirc.

that's what i thought. and yea, too lazy to google this weekend...or rather, I was behind on my pron quota and no time for anything else :D

[mickey]

Okay Oso,

Give us a time frame. Did it happen over a couple of weeks, a couple of months or a few years?

mickey

[Oso]

well, i think it started with some old Playboy's my dad had...i guess that would have been 35 or so years ago.

[viper]

Rofl niiice :)

[Syn7]

if you inspect your ears after rolling, there are methods one may employ to help reduce the effects of that sort of trauma... talk to somebody in sports medicine that has dealt with this, not just a GP, but somebody who has experience in fight medicine...

[Lee Chiang Po]

There is something wrong with this picture. Coliflower ear is due to serious abuse, and if the ears are getting that abused, so is the head. I always considered it to be simply a mental problem, because if a person puts himself into such a situation he has lost most of his ability to reason. Stop letting people punch you in the face or you will have far more to worry about than coliflower ear.

[mickey]

Lee Chiang Po,

If this is the case, do you really think Oso will be able to understand you?

I did think that he was not using head gear during his sparrings.


mickey

[kungfoozer]

A lot of mma guys see this condition as a good thing. A trophy. I think it's gross and it makes you look dweeby.

If you don't have access to dit da jiao to massage into your ears after practice than ice is the next best thing. After you get roughed up being thrown take a few minutes to ice and massage. This is largely preventative. Massaging your ears will definitely help. For long term I would recommend finding warming dit da jows to massage into the ear. This will help break up calcifications. Get these items from a Chibese herb store. If you aren't into the Chinese stuff I would also recommend seeing what a plastic surgeon has to say. They are expensive if you dontnhave insurance but they know about surgery if that's what you need.

[Frost]

There is something wrong with this picture. Coliflower ear is due to serious abuse, and if the ears are getting that abused, so is the head. I always considered it to be simply a mental problem, because if a person puts himself into such a situation he has lost most of his ability to reason. Stop letting people punch you in the face or you will have far more to worry about than coliflower ear.

god not again, its standard in rugby wrestling judo etc any sport with contact can cause it

i have exactly the same thing as OSO and i need special ear phones these days lol

[Oso]

god not again, its standard in rugby wrestling judo etc any sport with contact can cause it

i have exactly the same thing as OSO and i need special ear phones these days lol

lol, yea it's not that bad...just something i noticed when I bought new ear phones not expecting to need the small pads.

and, i don't think i've ever been HIT in the ear ever...had them scraped off the side of my head plenty of times though.

[Taryn P.]

I got an aural hematoma (blood clot in the folds of skin of the ear, the precurser to cauli ear) in April and another one last month, from jiu jitsu. They occurred from pulling my head repeatedly out of headlocks and other ear-scraping grappling, not from being struck.

See attachment for what a fresh aural hematoma looks like. That's where I had my first one, and it looked exactly like that. It didn't even hurt that much.... my ears had hurt for months every time they were touched, from all the repetitive scraping. One day I got in the car after practice and looked in the rearview, and there it was, big as life and twice as ugly.

If it's fresh, you should have it drained and a compression bandage put on to keep it from filling up again. The older it is, the more difficult it is to drain because the blood clots up. After a certain time frame, the ear is deformed and you can't really do much unless you want to have cosmetic surgery to reshape the ear (and even then it won't be the same).

[goju]

i wore ear guards the minute i started grappling theres no was way ill end up deformed. :eek:

[Taryn P.]

I bought some ear guards after the first hematoma in April. I hate those ear guards, but the hematoma was worse. I went to the Urgent Care to have it drained. It was a horrible experience. They stuck two HUGE needles in my jaw to numb me up, then started slicing and squeezing the ear. The anesthetic did NOTHING, and when I said so, they stabbed me with the two needles again. Still nothing. So they just went ahead, and I could feel everything.

I got a second hematoma a little while ago, despite having been really good about wearing the ear guards all the time. This one was BEHIND my other ear. I think it was actually from my stiff gi collar rubbing against the ear during situps and other warm-up exercises ("Hey, gnarly cauli ear! How'd you get that?!?" "Uh, doing situps.") I just left that one, because it was smaller, and not as visible, and I didn't want a repeat of my April experience. Now I wear the earguards even for warmup exercises. :(

[Kansuke]

A lot of mma guys see this condition as a good thing. A trophy. I think it's gross and it makes you look dweeby..



"dweeby"?

???????????????

[Oso]

I got an aural hematoma (blood clot in the folds of skin of the ear, the precurser to cauli ear) in April and another one last month, from jiu jitsu. They occurred from pulling my head repeatedly out of headlocks and other ear-scraping grappling, not from being struck.

See attachment for what a fresh aural hematoma looks like. That's where I had my first one, and it looked exactly like that. It didn't even hurt that much.... my ears had hurt for months every time they were touched, from all the repetitive scraping. One day I got in the car after practice and looked in the rearview, and there it was, big as life and twice as ugly.

If it's fresh, you should have it drained and a compression bandage put on to keep it from filling up again. The older it is, the more difficult it is to drain because the blood clots up. After a certain time frame, the ear is deformed and you can't really do much unless you want to have cosmetic surgery to reshape the ear (and even then it won't be the same).

please tell me that's not a picture of you....

[Oso]

and, in a related note: met a Catch guy that I've heard good things about last night at the local MMA event (which was an ok one, the 175# guy that I've trained with, and gotten submitted by many times, won his fight in :19. Jab-Jab-Uppercut and that was pretty much it) and want to roll with him...thing is, I can't really 'practice/train', but I'm willing to roll till I tap.

He had a shirt on that must have been custom: "The Guard is for Girls" :D

[Taryn P.]

please tell me that's not a picture of you....

No, my boss complains if I let my beard start to grow out like that.

[Oso]

whew...good. was going to be disturbed a bit if so. :)

[Kansuke]

I bought some ear guards after the first hematoma in April. I hate those ear guards, but the hematoma was worse. I went to the Urgent Care to have it drained. It was a horrible experience. They stuck two HUGE needles in my jaw to numb me up, then started slicing and squeezing the ear. The anesthetic did NOTHING, and when I said so, they stabbed me with the two needles again. Still nothing. So they just went ahead, and I could feel everything.

I got a second hematoma a little while ago, despite having been really good about wearing the ear guards all the time. This one was BEHIND my other ear. I think it was actually from my stiff gi collar rubbing against the ear during situps and other warm-up exercises ("Hey, gnarly cauli ear! How'd you get that?!?" "Uh, doing situps.") I just left that one, because it was smaller, and not as visible, and I didn't want a repeat of my April experience. Now I wear the earguards even for warmup exercises. :(


Since when do you need anesthesia to get your ear drained?

[Taryn P.]

I'm a wuss about certain types of pain, I freely admit it. Taking a kick or punch is a different prospect from agreeing to sit there and let someone cut a long slit in your ear with a scalpel, then spend ten minutes squeezing blood clots out of the slice. After the area has already been swollen and painful for some time. It hurt. I didn't like it.