Sad tales of ears…
(See the tasteful little earrings on her ears? Not the ones in question today…)
Anybody remember how Maya got her ears pierced back in August? How I struggled with the decision, because I wasn’t allowed to pierce my ears until I was 16, and here she was, 10, and I had to decide whether this was one of those things where things had changed since I was that age, or not? How we decided to pierce the ears, but only little studs, no hoops or danglies to make her look older than she is? OK, so now you’re up to date. Well, since then, her ears got infected once, so we stopped letting her wear the cheapo earrings for awhile, and she had to put in her piercing studs for a few months while the ears got really nice and clean again. She twisted them every night in the shower, everything was fine. Whew. Once everything was OK, we decided that it would be best for her to wear a pair, and not irritate the ears by taking them in and out all of the time, so she’s been wearing one pair of earrings for several weeks at a time. Not a good idea, you say? To which I reply, “now you tell me.”
Not sure if the problem is that the earrings she’s leaving in are cheap, and she has a reaction to the nickel in the posts. Or, does she simply have them squeezed too tightly, a reaction to a pair she wore for a couple of days that had very loose backs, and thus would fall of in her sleep, and as they were her only pair of 14k gold earrings, she would freak out and panic about that. Or, perhaps most likely, a combination of both situations was at play. Whatever the case, on Wednesday night, she was in the shower…she reached up to twist her earrings around, and it HURT. Odd, she thought. She reached around to the back of her earlobe, and found no back…so she tried to take out the earring, which REALLY HURT. So she left it alone until she was finished with the shower…then looked at it closely in the mirror. The back of her earlobe had grown around the back of her earring, and it was now covered in skin! ACK! That was freaky as hell, I gotta say. So, she came to get me, and I tried to get it out. Nope, not going to happen, esp since the lobe was swollen and infected, so it was very sensitive.
So, yesterday, off to the doctor we went. I love her doctor, by the way. She’s so calm, so kind, so gentle. She looked at the ear, and discussed the options with us. Maya very much wanted to be numbed up for the removal, but the doctor said that ears don’t numb very well, (along with noses and penises, btw), so she could try but it might not work. She said the most effective numbing comes with shots, and it would take three shots around the earlobe to hopefully make it numb. We decided to try to get it out without any numbing, because three shots in the ear sounded worse than anything else. So then the doctor called in some backup, to hold Maya still. She was flat on her back, with one helper holding her head still (so if she jerked it suddenly, she wouldn’t get a torn earlobe), and one holding her shoulders, and me holding her hands for comfort. The doctor looked and looked, and touching it hurt because of the infection, and poor Maya was crying and squeezing my hands so tightly I thought my fingers were going to be bruised afterwords…and then, the doctor used her tiny little forceps, grabbed that sucker, twisted slightly, pulled, and out it came. WHEW. Maya was amazed, because that part, she said, didn’t even hurt!
The doctor then proceeded to fix the back of the earring with her forceps (or maybe something else, what do I know) a move that I thought was above and beyond the call of duty. She said that we shouldn’t touch the ears much last night, but today we have to take out the cheapy earrings, and put the studs back in. They’ll have to stay until fall. Maya is on antibiotics for the infection. Now what remains to be seen is, can she still wear the cheapy earrings, as long as she takes them out at night and puts them in alcohol or something? Or is she going to be one of those gold all the way folks? Sigh.
Only time will tell. For now, I’m just glad the thing is OUT of there, and that it’s over. By the way, Maya was so brave, she wanted to go back to school afterward. Impressive, huh?
Happy Friday, everyone…we’re going to be busy busy busy, but most of the busy (well, all for me, most for Ted) is fun stuff we want to do, so it should be nice. Hope your weekend is busy or lazy, whichever you’re in the mood for, and at least mostly fun stuff.
20 Comments
Ml
Poor Maya 🙁 I’m so sorry she had to go through that. I’m sure it was very scary and painful for her.
I can’t wear the cheap-o earrings. Bummer, because some of them are so cute!
jefito
Oh dear God. I got queasy just reading this. Maya has a level of bravery I will never comprehend.
I need to go lie down for a minute.
Autumn's Mom
I’m going to make autumn read this post. She always wants to wear cheapo earrings. Props to Maya for being such a brave girl.
CG
Poor Moons, I feel the pain. I am so glad all went well. What a brave girl!
Starshine
Wow! I’ve never heard of an earlobe growing around the earring! YIKES!
The cheapo earring posts always hurt my ears. I’m one of those gold all the way folks. The good news, though, is that when I stick to gold-only (I think sterling silver is fine, too), my ears don’t get infected. Even now, though, I can only handle one day of cheapos every so often. Otherwise, they hurt!
V-Grrrl
E-Grrrl had her ears pierced when she was five and I’ve only let her wear gold earrings. You can get solid gold studs for $10 at places like Wal-Mart, so it’s not a big expense.
She had one bad infection and her pediatrician was not sympathetic. I could tell she did not approve of pierced ears; she told us to take the earrings out, let the ear heal, and then we could have them re-pierced. There was no way E-Grrrl wanted to do that.
My compromise was warm compresses on the affected ear lobe and application of the antibiotic ointment the doctor had prescribed. I figured if it didn’t get better in a day or two, we’d pull the earrings out. Happily, the ointment and compresses worked just fine.
For E-Grrrl, the secret to healthy ears seems to be gold posts and not pushing the backs on tight, letting the ear “breathe” even with an earring in. It’s been four years since her ears were pierced and we’ve only had that one bad infection. If her ears get sore, we take out and clean her earrings and apply ointment. Recently we tried sterling silver earrings and she seems to tolerate that fine.
Maya's Granny
Oh, my. Poor Moona. I’m glad it all went well.
Joan
ugh! My daughter had problems until we switched to surgical steel. For the 1st 2 years, that was all she could wear. Glad Maya is okay.
Wendy
oh my gosh, J! Well I am glad that it is “out” and that she’s on antibiotics and doing okay- but that must have been unpleasant for you both (to say the least!) Poor thing!
Gina
Ouch! An infected earlobe sounds painful, she was indeed very brave! Although it was sorta good that the actual extraction didn’t hurt. The anticipation of it sounds more excruciating than gettting it out!
Jason
I wish I could have taken a picture of my face when I read “The back of her earlobe had grown around the back of her earring, and it was now covered in skin!”
Oy!
Py Korry
That was some painful stuff for her! She had worked herself into such a state of panic at the thought of going to the doctor, that I think it made the whole thing worse. But she’s a trooper and was pretty much over it after the doctor’s visit. 🙂
(By the way, I look like the devil in that picture.)
CuriosityKiller
Wow. Three people holding her down to get rid of her earrings probably scared her more than the idea of three needles.
Good to know it didn’t hurt her much! Tell her that’s the price for beauty so she shouldn’t think twice before getting any more beautifications! 😉
CuriosityKiller
Oopss… I meant she should think twice before getting any more…
ah – you know what I mean.
Chrissy
J, I had the same reaction to earrings as Maya has. I got my ears pierced several times…and the first being when I was only 5 yrs old! My mom’s sisters thought it would be so cute and girlie for me to have earrings. Anyway, my ears got infected and I had to do the “alcohol, cleaning, turning the studs” thing every night too. One time, the holes closed (despite all my efforts) and I developed keloids on both ears. I had the cysts removed and discovered that I am highly sensitive to any jewelry that is not 100% real gold or silver.
Perhaps Maya is the same way and needs the real stuff. I felt badly that I couldn’t wear all the cute, trendy earrings my friends were wearing, but now I’m happy to know I need to wear 100% gold or silver. I’m glad Maya handled things like a trooper. What a brave girl! Sorry she had to go through this though!
Sonia
I got my ears pierced on my 9th birthday after initially having them pierced at age 2 when my hippy parents thought that was a SUPER idea….not so much with the infections it turns out.
I have used this tidbit of life experience to wait for my own girls until they are old enough to care for their own ears.
A friend of mine in high school wasn’t allowed until she was 16 either. And by the time she was allowed, she did it but she didn’t even really care much.
Your daughter is adorable, ears and all!
Lindsey
Great blog! It’s my first visit, but it’s a really good. 🙂
I got my ears pierced when I was five, because where I’m from it’s really popular to get them done early. Then for my eigth birthday, I really wanted double piercings. and I got them, but they closed over.
It sucks that her’s are getting infected. there are some non-allergy earings at Claire’s I think.
Good luck!
Lindsea
Gail
I sure can understand Maya’s panic. Any time I had to get a shot my Mom had to sit on me. Lasted until I was 11 when my Mom AND a nurse had to sit on me. I would totally panic every time. Poor Mom, I’m sure it was quite an ordeal to have to take me.
Okay about earrings … every once in awhile I’ll find a great pair of earrings that will hurt my ears after wearing them one day. I found that I can coat the posts or ear wires with clear nailpolish and wear them fine. Every so often I have to reapply the polish when it wears off. I start with a quick cleaning with nail polish remover (just on the posts or ear wires) and a cotton ball. Then a new layer goes on.
But you’ve gotta love those particular earrings. 🙂
Another easy fix is to go to Michael’s and purchase gold or silver posts/ear wires and swap them out on the earrings. 🙂
I’m glad that Maya’s doing good now.
Best, Gail
lalunas
Glad the doctor got it out and Maya is on the road to recovery.
MsMamma
I’m glad she is okay. That’s traumatic anyway! And I wanted to say thanks for the reassuring email you sent a few weeks ago which your post reminded me of when you were talking about numbing body parts. I’m hoping that doesn’t have to happen.
I see Maya as a platinum girl anyway.