Let's start this story on September 9, 2003 ... a week before my twenty-first birthday, and only a couple days before my piercer was going on hiatus to spend time with his baby girl. I was hoping to get pierced on my birthday but decided to do it a week ahead of time since Sean wouldn't be around on the big day. I had been adoring the rook for months on BME and decided it would be the perfect gift to me.
At A Glance Author Alexis Contact Letsi72@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Sean Ondo Studio Diversity Location Las Vegas, Nevada When I finally got to the studio, (had to wait for my best friend to get off of work), I chose a little blue curved titanium barbell with spiked ends. I was a little weary using the titanium because when I used titanium in my tragus it had a little bit of a freak out, but had healed perfectly by the time I decided to get my rook done, so I went with it ... it was just too cute to resist! The procedure went as planned and didn't really hurt as much as I had read about (a high pain tolerance rocks) and naturally, I was stoked! My new piercing was even better than I imagined it would be and I fell in love with it instantly.
I did all the normal aftercare, antibacterial soap, salt soaks, no touchy! Yet, for some strange reason, when I woke up the Friday after I got pierced, it was aching pretty badly and my whole ear was nice and swollen. I babied it even more and figured this was the freak out from the titanium it would have like my tragus did. Extra salt soaks, lots of tlc, and hopes for the best. Over the day it got progressively worse and by the time I went to bed my ear was a little more swollen than when I woke up and much more painful. Before bed I took a couple Aleve to calm the swelling and kick the pain right where it needed to be kicked and called it a night. About 4 a.m. I awoke from a very sound sleep with this horrible pain in my ear. I went to look in the mirror and was shocked at what I saw. My ear was a balloon, a good three times the size of a normal ear, and ooooh did it hurt! I knew the only thing that would relieve the pain and make the swelling go down even a little bit was to take the jewelry out. So here I am, in my pajamas at 4 o'clock in the morning trying to get this thing out. Ha! What a joke that was. Not only are my fingers too big to get a good grip on the barbell, it hurts any time I get near it. So I call mom . . . yeah I'm practically twenty-one by this time, but when I've got a situation, I'll still call my mommy. :-) She tried to help me get it out to no painful avail. I was torn between getting rid of the pain and keeping my rook. The pain won. My mom drove me to the quick care across town to see what a doctor could do for me. I guess it's pretty bad when the only thing every person on the medical staff who sees this thing can do is ooh and ahh and scrunch up their faces in empathy over the pain I must have been feeling. Two shots of novocaine, lots of tugging, pulling, confusion over how to get the barbell off (I had to literally draw the doctor a picture since he hadn't ever done this one before) and the barbell was out in a bloody mess. He prescribed me some heavy duty antibiotic s and pain killers ... yes ... pain killers. On the way to the pharmacy the novocaine wore off and I promise you that was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. The whole side of my face felt like it was on fire and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I finally got to take a pain killer but it didn't work! So my mom gave me another kind that finally calmed it down enough that I could go to sleep and forget my woes. For two weeks after that I was still in pain and even though the swelling in my ear started to go down it moved down to the side of my neck and back of my head! I could hardly believe the crap I dealt with because of this little tiny piercing.
After all the trouble my rook caused me you'd think I would never get it done again. I missed it too much to heed the warnings of my rook from the first time. It just so happened that my piercer started working again last week and I found out about it. So this past Saturday, we went in to catch up on things, see how his little girl was doing and all that . . . and naturally my rook got brought up because he hadn't heard the horror story. We talked to him for a good two hours about everything possible when I decided I had to have my rook back. I asked him about the dangers, if the same thing would happen, etc., etc. He agreed with me that the titanium may have been part of the problem, so we went with a stainless steel curved barbell this time. Not nearly as cute as the other, but once healing is done, I can always change the jewelry. I filled out the necessary paperwork and prepared for the pain. Cleaning, marking, poking. I was surprised that it didn't hurt that b ad. I was prepared for excruciatingly terrible sounds and pain to come from my little rook this time, but nada. Took him a little extra elbow grease to get it through, but nothing too horrible. As usual, the worst part of the whole thing was the jewelry insertion. Once it was done I was giggling with excitement about having my rook back.
It's now Monday, and things are going well so far. A little sore, as to be expected, but nothing strange like the last time around. So for now it's just a waiting game. I figure if I can make it till Wednesday morning without any issues it should be on its way to a clean bill of health! Wish me luck! If I don't have any problems with this one I'll be a happy camper!