I'd originally gone to get an industrial done, but upon arrival, I was informed that my ear just wasn't suited to that particular mod, so I decided to get a rook instead. The piercer happily told me that that would be fine and I would just have to wait for him to finish piercing another girl's nose. I sat down in one of the chairs and filled out the consent form and read the all too familiar care sheet.
At A Glance Author anonymous IAM dreader When A month ago Artist Corey Studio Adorned Location Calgary, AB I sat in that chair for quite a while, and to this day I'm not entirely sure if it helped my nerves or not. According to the piercer, most people who have to sit around for a long time get over their initial fear and find the rest no problem. I think I was somewhere in between. On the drive there I had LOTS of butterflies in my stomach, but by the time I was finally walking into the room, I'd calmed down considerably.
Once inside, I got nice and comfy(ish) on the bed and waited while the piercer got everything ready. Then swabbed my ear with iodine (yay....) and drew several little lines on my ear with a toothpick and then I was ready for the needle.
Some people, apparently, find rooks no problem what so ever. I was not one of those people. Apparently I have super dense cartilage in that particular location and so the piercing was really, really slow and definitely more painful than almost all of my other ones. Obviously I wasn't counting how long the piercing took, but if I had to guess I'd say that it was at least 10 seconds. (After everything was all done and over with, the piercer told me that he'd had to use the most force to get the needle through than anything else he's done. ) Finally, once the needle was through, the earring had to be put in. This was also painful, but possibly only because my poor ear was already so affronted at having a sharp object poked through it.
I think all the things that happen after the actual piercing is done are the worst. Not in a pain sense, but in an aggravation sense. You've gotten the needle done with, but now you have to have them poke an earring through and close it and try and snap a little ball onto it. And they poke around at your sore ear and try and organize their hands so that they can accomplish all that needs to be done, all the while moving your ear around, making it ache. Ahh well, c'est la vie.
After the piercer was finished I got a look at my new piercing. It was so beautiful! (By this time I'd completely gotten over the disapointment of not being able to get an industrial.) Once I finally tore my eyes away from the mirror and could stop looking at my rook I paid for the piercing, had my ear shown off to one of the other guys working there, and was on my way home.
The entire car ride my ear felt very warm, but didn't yet throb or anything. The heat was actually kind of nice, made my whole head feel nice and warm. By the time I got home it was starting to hurt just a little bit, but only when I moved my head suddenly or if I touched any other part of my ear. At first that alarmed me a little bit, but then I realized that if I touch any part of my ear, my ear moves, which moves the piercing a little bit, which would make it hurt.
That night was a little difficult. After getting a helix done in my left ear, I'd had to learn to sleep on my right side. Now that I'd gotten used to sleeping on my right side, I had to re-learn how to sleep on my left. This wouldn't be so bad except my helix is still in the final healing stages and isn't always that comfortable to sleep on. I can't sleep on my back because I think it's ridiculously uncomfortable, so I sort of dug a hole in my pillow and put my left ear in that so that the pillow wouldn't push against the piercing. (Quite an effective little trick if I do say so myself. Only really works with feather pillows though. Or those funny little doughnut pillow type things.)
At the present time my rook is healing quite nicely.now 7 months old. It actually seems to be healing as well as all the piercings that I got prior to my Diabetes. I'm not entirely sure why Diabetics would heal more slowly than non Diabetics, but I think it has something to do with your blood sugar numbers. Mine have been much closer to normal this time around than they were with my helix, and that definitely seems to be making all the difference in the world.