H2ocean is just expensive salt water. You can buy saline eye wash, or go to wally world and buy a 2 dollar box of NON IODIZED sea salt and mix your own with 1/4 teaspoon salt in one cup of warm water. You should not "pick" the gunk" off. That only gets your dirty fingernails involved (yes, dirty, you can't get rid of the bacteria under you fingernails with normal handwashing). Soak it off. Lather it good in the shower once a day with clean hands. Rinse the soap off really well as soap scum can trap bacteria against your piercing. Use the salt water twice a day to SOAK (not dab). In your case use it a time or two extra during the day. Never touch it unless you have just washed your hands. Leave the jewelry in. Just make sure it is good jewelry. Don't believe they are all the same. Buy from a piercing shop. Then leave it alone. soap and salt. In your case, I would probably say triple antibiotic ointment once a day just for a few days. shower no baths. No hot tubs or swimming till it heals better. Then again LEAVE IT ALONE. If it is hot, red, angry, hard, swelling, definitely time to see the doc, but leaving the jewelry in will leave a channel for the drainage to come out.
from the Association of Professional Piercers. http://www.safepiercing.org/piercing/body-aftercare/
WASH your hands thoroughly prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.
SALINE soak for five to ten minutes once or more per day. Invert a cup of warm saline solution over the area to form a vacuum. For certain piercings it may be easier to apply using clean gauze or paper towels saturated with saline solution. A brief rinse afterward will remove any residue.
SOAP no more than once or twice a day. While showering, lather up a pearl size drop of the soap to clean the jewelry and the piercing. Leave the cleanser on the piercing no more than thirty seconds, then rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of the soap from the piercing. It is not necessary to rotate the jewelry through the piercing.
DRY by gently patting with clean, disposable paper products. Cloth towels can harbor bacteria and snag on jewelry, causing injury.
from the Association of Professional Piercers. http://www.safepiercing.org/piercing/body-aftercare/
WASH your hands thoroughly prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.
SALINE soak for five to ten minutes once or more per day. Invert a cup of warm saline solution over the area to form a vacuum. For certain piercings it may be easier to apply using clean gauze or paper towels saturated with saline solution. A brief rinse afterward will remove any residue.
SOAP no more than once or twice a day. While showering, lather up a pearl size drop of the soap to clean the jewelry and the piercing. Leave the cleanser on the piercing no more than thirty seconds, then rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of the soap from the piercing. It is not necessary to rotate the jewelry through the piercing.
DRY by gently patting with clean, disposable paper products. Cloth towels can harbor bacteria and snag on jewelry, causing injury.
