Stretching experience gone bad, but not too bad. Need Feedback!

I got my ear lobes pierced (with a gun) 2 1/2 weeks ago, but this past Saturday I was cleaning my studs and decided to put the 10G tapers my sister got me in my lobes just to see if they would fit. They didn't at first, so I just pushed them through. They bled a little and were tender, but tolerable. Later on that night I was worried about them coming out in my sleep, so I decided if I moved the tapers back a little they had less of a chance of falling out. I started with my right lobe. When I attempted to move the taper it popped out the back and the lobe started bleeding alot, so I cleaned off the blood and put the taper back in. That made my right lobe VERY tender. I left it alone and went to bed. I woke up the next morning to find that both my lobes being about 2 times their normal size and being blood red in color. I had put the o-rings pretty snug on against my lobes and when I took the front o-ring off of my right lobe, pus immediatly came out of it. I had the same results with the left lobe. I cleaned my lobes with peroxide and put my 16 or 18G studs back in. Now 3 days later my lobes are still infected, but slowly healing.

I would like to know what I did wrong. Did skipping the sizes in between 18 and 10 contribute to the infection? I still want to stretch my lobes. I want to know how to do it without having another infection though. What is the right way?

Thanks to all that read this whole message. I appreciate the feedback.

 

Uh.. skipping sizes is what caused this. And your ears aren't infected, they were severly shocked and were trying to heal, don't assume infection! *sigh*
Anyways, do you realize how much of a jump you did going from recently gunned (probably not even healed, 2 weeks isn't even close of enough time to heal) to 10ga?
Regular gunned earrings are around 20ga or 22ga, so being conservative, I'd say yours were probaby 20's. So, this is the increments you have between 20ga and 10ga.

20ga - 18ga - 16ga - 14ga - 12ga - 10ga

SO you skipped 4 sizes! Not good to do that even at that small a size, well, unless you want your ears to look like cat anus's when you get bigger than a 10ga. Not sure if that was the look you are going for or not.

Anyways, rule number one for ya': Don't clean your ears with peroxide, Talk to a professional piercer about cleaning your ears and get tips from them.

Rule number two: Take it slow and don't skip sizes, it'll take longer but you'll have a healthier, happier and much more desired result.

Good luck in the future!

 

I completly agree with albin0. Though, the first mistake was piercing them with a gun.

 

yea, thats really bad, you shouldn't skip sizes, you also need to wait at least 4 weeks before you move up at all, there should be no pain when you move up in size, also blood is really bad, you will need to put the 20s back in and wait until they are completely healed, then massage with vitamin e to break down keloid scar tissue completely, more than likely you develop a blowout which sometimes requires surgery to repair,and dont use peroxide, it is bad for puncture wounds, use ear care solution, its only 3 bucks.....you should also go to the doctor if your ears are that infected,going to 10s only two and a half weeks after your piercing, its tempting to go faster with gauging, but if you do, you will ruin your ears, and it takes longer to heal after putting your ears through that much trauma, both tay and i have been gauging for a while, and trust me, taking short cuts in body modification will leave you looking like the frankenstein ear boy, my friend chad tried to take short cuts with it and his ears look like a proctology experiment gone wrong......
not trying to lecture you but if you want your shit to be the best it can be then take it slow,its worth it.....
peace,
day & tay

 

Euh. You're supposed to wait at least six weeks before even changing your earrings, let alone stretching them.

Go slow. You'll rip your earlobe. I'm dealing with that right now.

 

Keloid scar tissue is usually only found in people that have African American ancestory, and if you do get it, you can't get rid of it.
Blowouts are what happen when you stretch too fast. They're what make your ears look like cat assholes if you rush.
AUGH! Don't use that ear care shit!! Get Bacitracin, or Provon.. I love that stuff.

 

That is bullshit, anybody can get keloids... and blow-outs do turn into keloids. Using vitamine e on it everyday helps alot.

The reason they were so swollen when you woke up, was indeed because you have the o rings on too tight. I assume you also didn't disinfect the tapers properly which is why there was puss trapped inside. Taking the tapers out was probably a mistake. Once a piercing is infected the pus needs a way to escape and when you take the jewelry out the infection gets caught inside with no way out.

You should do sea-salt soaks on your ears every morning and night, and once there is no irritation to your lobes you should gauge em to a 12. Yeah there can be problems when you gauge your ears to fast, but skippign just a couple gauges is the best way to do it. Just make sure your not putting to much pressure on the new tapers, or your lobes can rip.

 

A) Its probley just scar tissue not a keloid.
B) What Albin0 was saying was its more common in black and asian...not that only blacks can get them
C)Blow-outs turn to keliods???? I thought a blow-out was just excess skin..???
D)Yes you should of left your piercings in so the puss has a place to escape
E)I love H20cean...its spiffy ^_^
F)I'm sorry I'm to dang lazy today to type a acutal paragraph...I hope the ABC's don't make me out like a prick HAHAHAH!!!

 

Why did you have your lobes gunned?!? I would suggest that you take everything out of your ears and let them heal up. Clean them with a sea salt solution (1tsp sea salt to 1 cup of warm water) no soap, peroxide or alcohol-that stuff is too irritating.

Once everything is healed, go to a piercing studio and get them done with a needle-they can even pierce you at 10 gauge.

 

1tsp sea salt to 1cup?! is that the amount every uses? down here its generally recommended 1/4 tsp to 1cup, or 1tsp to 1litre.. wow thats really salty lol

 

Kris?: Thanks, yes, that's what I was saying!

Uh.. No, they don't. I have blowouts on both my ears, and they're still just blow outs. Keloids are super fibrous scar tissue, and yes, African Americans and Asians usually have a higher tendoncy to get keloids.

Keloids and info on them: http://encyc.bmezine.com/?cmd=search&query=keloid

Blowouts and info on them: http://encyc.bmezine.com/?piercing_blow-out

 

Oh and environmental_junkie: Using jojoba oil is better for your ears than vitamin E.
(Although Vit E works just as good, it's not as high a quality as jojoba oil.)

 

Whats jojoba oil?

 

Hehe, it's this really awesome oil! (And it's pronounced ho-hoba, not JOE-joba! LOL!)
I couldn't find anywhere on Bme that talks about it, but then, they're not the end all-be all of information.
Anyways, jojoba oil is super awesome oil, and it's really geared towards adding elasticity to whatever you use it on. You can use is on your skin, hair, and I think you can even use it for cooking! Here's a little link to a website selling it, but it has more info about it.
http://www.ageless.co.za/jojobaoil.htm

 

haha thats cool I'm looking at the link as i post this.

 

sorry...typo-I forgot the rest of the fraction. 1/4 tsp sea salt to 1 cup water. Dont want to turn your ear into a pickle

 

haha awesome.. freaked me out a little there