At the beginning of July I found that I had a problem with my left earlobe. Below is an account of how I dealt with the problems facing me as I tried to overcome the bad effect that it's had on my lobe. As you can see before in my previous lobe experience, I have had slight trouble with my left earlobe in the past but only at the smaller stages.
At A Glance Author Caroline Contact Caroline@bme.anon IAM Momentary_Seizure When A week ago Studio My house Location Leicester, England.
This was just my way of dealing with it. It may not be the best advice to give as I'm only young and I've never experienced anything like this before but here's how I tackled the problem of my poorly lobes. I decided to do a step-by-step account, for myself if for no one else.
I hope this helps.Monday 3rd July, 2006
11.00am
I've just received some beautiful emerald green Kaos tunnels and some fabulous clear plugs in the post from my favourite boy. I sat in my bathroom and put the clear plug in my left ear and pushed the o-rings on. They kept popping off – now I remember why I favour flared jewellery! It looks amazing though. I decided to put the other in my left ear but good god there was a lot of pain. It pulled on my ear as I tried to put it in, which in turn made my anti-tragus painful. I didn't quite understand why though. I took the jewellery out and had a look at my lobe. It was red and bumpy and very, very angry. I, being the stubborn fool that I am, decided to put it back in. I oiled it up plenty and pushed it back into my ear. Not even a minute later I couldn't bear the throbbing so I took it out and decided to leave it.
I have no idea what's happened.4.30pm
After much discussion with various members of IAM, I've decided what I'm going to do about it. All this week I'm going to baby it and see how I go with that. If, after the week my lobe is still red and angry, I'm going to go see my piercer. I'm not going to wear any jewellery and I'm going to do plenty of sea-salt soaks – probably more for my anti tragus than anything – and lots of vitamin E rubs to make it feel a bit better.
I think it's the combination of the anti tragus and very small wearing surface on the jewellery I was wearing before. The fact that I slept in the uncomfortable plugs would not only pull down on my ear but when they came out a bit, I'd just push them back in, not helping my lobes or my anti-tragus from all the movement.
This week will be a pretty big test of what happens to my lobes. Downsizing for a week or so will not have that much effect on my the size of my lobe, I hope. Even if it does but it feels much better, it'll be worth it.Tuesday 4th June, 2006
3.25pm
So today I woke up and crossed my fingers all the way to the bathroom. Apparently it paid off – though I assume that'd be the salt soaking and the vitamin E massages – as my lobe looked a lot better. A lot of the redness had disappeared and also my anti tragus bar seemed a lot longer so I'm guessing the swelling has gone down a fair bit. The discolouration of the skin has almost completely gone and the inside of my lobe just looks the normal pinky colour that they're supposed to be.
I did spot the cause of the problem, however. There appears to be two small spots on the part of my lobe closest to my head. They aren't angry looking but they are pretty sore so I think that's going to be what needs to be sorted out. I'm hoping it won't take too long, though I'm sure it won't. It's not even been 36 hours since I discovered the problem and already it's feeling a lot better.
I think as long as I stick to my cleaning regime it'll be fine. I also got given the idea of using some sort of anti-septic so I sprayed a bit of Savlon spray onto my lobe and it's left my lobe feeling soft and cool and it's working for my anti tragus as well.
Fingers crossed, eh?Thursday 6th July, 2006
11.39am
Well after a very disorganised day yesterday I've not really had much time to look after my lobes. I have been wearing an 11mm flared tunnel in my left ear and it seems to be doing ok. Obviously my lobe is a lot bigger than that but considering all I did was stretch with tape after half inch – and all my half inch jewellery is short – this is all I have for the time being. The soreness is almost gone. I daresay my whole lobe is looking smoother and better and even the two little lumps are beginning to disappear. All in all, it's a good day and I've only been awake for a few minutes of it!9.30pm
Oh god. I put a Kaos tunnel in my right ear earlier and it seemed fine but my lobe was looking a bit dark and sore. I slipped the tunnel out and turns out I had a lump on it. Shit shit shit. Not only that but I massaged it with vitamin E and that made it SO much worse. So now I have a lump the side of Africa on my lobe and it's throbbing and sore.Friday 7th July, 2006
11.30am
Ugggh. This morning my ear looks horrible. I woke up and looked at my pillow, saw a blood spot on it and thought the worst. I went to the bathroom and my earlobe hadn't bled – so God knows where the blood is from! – but my earlobe had crusted over in the night and it felt tight and horrible and the sides of the hole looked stuck together. I soaked it with warm salt water and got all the crustiness off it but it was still very angry looking and gross.
Though, in other news my left ear is perfectly happy again. It looks great and the 11mm tunnel I'm wearing in it is nicely loose. I'm going to see if I can put something bigger in it later.2.10pm
Excellent. It's nice to have bigger jewellery in my lobe again. I managed to put a 14mm tape wrap plug in my left lobe – 16mm would have fit, at a push, but I thought I'd stick with 14mm just to be on the safe side. It doesn't feel tight at all, my ear has stayed the same colour and it feels perfectly fine. As I said before, excellent.
My other lobe, however, is still looking awful. I sprayed some anti-septic on it and that's made it softer but it's still ugly, swollen and red. Plenty of cleaning and such like over the weekend is in order I feel.Tuesday 11th July, 2006
2.14am
So I'm sitting here with a 17mm plug in my left lobe and an 8mm plug in my right.
My left lobe is perfect. Thick, soft, smooth, healthy, beautiful. My right lobe is getting there. It's getting softer, it's getting smoother and it's definitely getting thicker. I'm really happy. Although the plug is tiny in my right ear, at least it's a start. And considering how well I managed to get back up to 17mm in my other ear I'm chuffed.
I just covered them both with vitamin E and gave them a good massage so hopefully they'll feel pretty in the morning.Wednesday 12th July, 2006
1.27am
YES! I just put an 11mm flared tunnel in my right ear.
I think I'm well on the way back to ¾" at the rate these are stretching without hassle!This whole experience has taught me a lot.
At the end of my lobe stretching experience I said how this was a complete learning curve and how everything I've picked up has just made me wiser on the subject. That could not be truer. In the past, I had never been confronted with problems with piercings. I'd have the odd lump on the back of a cartilage piercing or underneath my medusa bar but nothing as important as this. These are my earlobes. It's not just a small piercing that could be taken out or covered up. It's a big part of me, literally, and to ruin 18 months of hard work – not to mention the aesthetics of my ears themselves – was just not on my agenda.I've decided that I need to take better care of my earlobes. Having had no problems with them at all before, I thought that I could get away with being a bit slack with care of them, even though I knew that it could end up being a disaster. I always made sure I massaged my ears with oil before I put jewellery in but that was about as far as care went. I've now realised that they are actually piercings that need taking care of. They can't just do it themselves. I think that somehow I've managed to delude myself that they're fine and don't need as much care as the others. But now I've realised they need more.
I think that letting my lobes rest a while would be a good idea. I've been told that stretching up and downsizing a lot makes your lobes a lot thicker and healthier, providing you do it right. I think that that is one of the best pieces of advice I've picked up on in a long while. As I have beautiful jewellery in nearly 17mm and 18mm that I'd love to wear again, I think that downsizing will not only be good for my lobes themselves, it'll be good for how I see them. I like changing jewellery a lot and I also like stretching. This way, I can get my stretching kick without going to large at such an early stage in my life.
I think the moral of this story and one I'm trying to get you to understand is that you need to always be careful. Always. Even with something you think is perfectly fine, you need to be careful. I hope that my mistake has either taught you something you didn't know or re-enforced something that you may have been thinking yourself. I wouldn't wish this on anyone because the initial feeling of taking your jewellery out to downsize for the first time is shattering.
Best of luck with stretching and just remember to look after yourselves.
