June 23

well i discovered after all that - it was infected the whole time - i got hold of some non iodized salt and soaked my ear in a shallow bowl with hot water and salt. It drained something serious, very serious and the swelling went down immediatley - it was really swollen - i mean it still is today, but bot nearly as swollen as it was. There was alot of fluid in there, not really blood, i have not seen really any blood come out at all. Today I am concerned with this lump thru the piercing and on the back of my ear. I am positive that it is NOT a keliod, but I am concerned that it is an abcess that needs to be drained - but then again I am not sure - and I have read DO NOT pop that lump, it will only get worse. I am wondering if it is just the swollen cartildage, because there is some serious cartilage that i put a needle thru - i dont want it to get hard and my ear stay like this, so i am not sure what to do - not sure if it is left from the infection or if it is swelling - but I want it gone. It does not hurt nearly as bad as it did a week ago today

my fiance was getting tatted at our normal shop - where I DID NOT GO - stupid on my part - anyhow, my guy up there was really concerned and said that he didnt think that i would wake up the next day - told me i needed to seek immediate medical attention - he had never seen anything like it before - he wanted me to remove it - but with all the internet reading that I have done on this piercing - i see that removing the jewlery is NOT the way to go - it will heal up with the infection still in the ear and then i will really look like a tart - i just hope that someone reading this may have this piercing and may have had a similar expierence - i am open to your opinions - email me nccharest@yahoo.com

these are photos from today - front and back of ear - today is the first day that i noticed the bump on the back of my ear - NOT A FAN

exactly one week since piercing

My snug friend is not a happy friend. Well, she don't look happy by any means. Today i put a bit of peroxide on it to get rid of all the crust, I have been maintaining it with saline solution as I stated earlier. We have friends that own a tattoo shop, my fiance had a 4 hour sitting today, so I went up to see him and to speak with James and Terry the certified piercers out of Lance Keller Studios in Chesterfield, Mi. They didn't want to touch me, or my friend, they said that it looked terrible, my body was rejecting it and that it really looks like i need to seek medical attention, they're scared that I won't wake up. I went into the whole scenario about how the jewlery was too small and that I went back to have it changed, they couldn't believe it. I told them that I refused to take it out, I can take the pain. But it is REALLY SORE. they told me that I should be taking ibprofen like it's noones business, its supposed to help with the swelling, so i went and got some tonight, this is what it looks like today. one week and a day from initial piercing and been changed.

Over the weekend, it swelled up really bad, and it was throbbing. I could tell that if I unscrewed the balls, it was going to swell up past the bar. Monday 6-15, I went back to that piercer. He stated that he agreed that it was swollen and offered to change it to a longer barbell. He changed it from 3/8 to 7/16. Instant relief, however, unscrewing the old barbell, shoving another needle through it and then following with a longer barbell and then wrenching again on my swollen ear to screw the ball on, OMG, talk about pain. Then all was well, he said that it would help it to drain also?? whatever, it did not drain that day. The next day while cleaning it, i turned it and instantly a light fluid started coming out of entrance and exit of it, I have been being real careful with it, cleaning with saline soultion and qtips - being very careful not to knock or sleep on it. This photo is from the 15th. That tragus you see, was also not a fun piercing. it also swelled up and was very infected, it was pierced with a ring originally and that caused it to get infected, i removed the ring and put a barbell in, poof, no more irritation, and it healed perfectly, one year later of course. I have a rook and a conch on the other ear, and had absolutly NO issues with either. According to the internet it will take at least 8-16 weeks to a full year for rook, conch, tragus and snug to heal. This one is worrying me. The day that I got it, one of the girls at work advised me that I need to be really careful when piercing the cartiladge so that i don't end up with "cauliflower ear" then i got real scared and started internet diagnosing because i refuse to remove my piercings.

day one - initial piercing

Last minute decision. I knew that I wanted to get something in my right ear to "level" me out, I got alot goin on in my ears lol!! So when I went in to the shop, I asked if i could get something in "this region" pointing to THE area, he said "it's called a snug, come on back". The initial piercing wasn't THAT bad, but this is the first piercing where the piercer told me to take a breath on going in with the needle and then breathe in again when he was coming out the other side. I asked to have a curved barbell like my rook, I wasn't really watching what he was doing, then i looked in the mirror and seen that he had pierced me with a barbell. I was like whatever, paid the man and left. This is a photo of my new "snug" Thursday 6-11-2010