Three weeks ago I had a 4ga piece of cartilage removed from my my ear. It was fine for about two weeks until one day, a malevolent force began simmering up from within.
At A Glance Author Progressive Contact time_as_matter@hotmail.com IAM Progressive When It just happened Today it's Sunday and it's been one week since my right conch began burning. I reported this burning to several friends and should have tackled the situation at the time. I sort of assumed that my ear was merely irritated by the solid drinking I had ( so irresponsibly and stupidly) engaged in since I got the punching. So I monitored the progress of the conch pain over the next twenty four hours as it escalated and the temperature of the ear increased. By the time I got work on Tuesday the pain was so intense that I was having a hard time focussing on anything, very much considering going home. I called Rob, from Industrial Strength who had done the punch and he agreed that I had an infection and should get on antibiotics as soon as possible.
The ear was swollen and pressing with reasonable pressure against the front flare and o-ring. I was reluctant to remove the o-ring incase my ear engulfed that end of the tunnel. that night when I got home I salt soaked the ear for a good while which offered temporary relief.
The next morning I woke up early and booked a doctors appointment because I had to go to work again that night. The doctor was pretty cool, he was a younger guy and basically agreed with everything I said and prescribed me flucloxacillin, a type of penecillin I think. He did however say that if is wasn't cleared up by the Friday it would be a good idea if i removed the jewelry. I wasn't too keen on this prospect so I steered clear of alcohol all together and ate fresh fruit and veg and took vitamins over the next few days.That night at work was the pain at it's worst. I had pain extending from my temple to my neck to my eye and I can assure you that I was very worried at many times about the future of the piercing, my ear and myself. My ear had swollen so much that the skin split around the flare and the inner conch was all exposed flesh. Thankfully it wasn't a very think layer of skin. I could also feel the skin in my ear canal being stretched and tightened by the swelling. We were short staffed and I must have looked very strange with all the cringing and sour facial expressions that were dominating me due to the radiating pain. I'm no stranger to pain and I think this was really up there in my top ten negative pain experiences. But I made it through the night somehow and continued cleaning religiously.
Thursday was very marginally better but I only did six at work hours so I pulled through ok. I removed the o-ring that night which allowed for more effective cleaning and more adequate drainage. Getting a good nights sleep also proved futile because I had to sleep on my back all night and the pain would come and go, sometimes waking me up. Through the whole ordeal I used antiseptic earcare solution, softwear saline solution and warm sea salt soaks. My fight against the infection leaned further in my favour during Friday.
On Saturday while I was carry a table up the stairs at work, after making a very conscious effort no to, I smacked myself in the infected conch with the table which had me kind of rattled for a few hours but didn't seem to heed my progress too much.
Today I feel that worse of it is over and the area around the punch hole is much less sensitive than before. I've got one more day of antibiotics to go. Tomorrow I will try and find somewhere in Canberra I can get a pair of 6ga barbells and downsize to those to allow room for regrowth in both conches. When they behave begin to behave themselves and heal up, I'll stretch back up to 4ga and maybe even do some cartilage stretching from there.
Next time I get a mod I hope I follow my own advice like I have in the past. I certainly got cocky with this conch punch and almost pulled it off if it weren't for a second week of partying due to my Mum's wedding. I also think that the haircut I got just before the wedding attributed if not, caused the infection too. At one point several days after the haircut, I cleaned a strand of hair out from between the jewelery and the cartilage. That pissed me off a bit. The whole experience has definitely helped me to appreciate my piercings so much more and made me more aware of my body and its reactions.