The Rook Diary: Week #2

.:Originally posted at my old blog on August 31st, 2012:.

Pain has certainly gone down A LOT in the past week. I am very surprised... one of my friends got a helix piercing last year, and she shared with me that it still hurts when she touches her ear accidentally. So I wasn't expecting to be nearly pain-free two weeks later. But my rook piercing has been doing very well!

• Over the past week, I've gotten a bit lazy with cleaning. I absent-mindedly have been reducing my cleanings down to three or even two times a day.
• However, I am going to work on that because last night I was watching Greek and non-chalantly trying to scrape away crusties from my barbell (I've gotten a bit paranoid about them... they've become a lot more present now... the first week, there was no crust around the piercing at all, but now I extract little bits every time I clean) when I pulled my hand away to find blood all over my finger.
• MORAL OF THE STORY: keep real cleanings at four times a day, and keep unclean hands away from the piercing. also, using a mirror is always way easier when trying to deal with my rook piercing.

I still find a Q-tip and Bactine (or, in my case, the CVS generic brand of "Pain Relieving Antiseptic Liquid") to be the easiest and most thorough way to wash my rook piercing.

• Very little of my ear hurts to the touch anymore, and I can finally lay on my right side again! PRAISE BE I CAN WATCH TELEVISION UNTIL I FALL ASLEEP ONCE MORE!!
• My ear now only grows red when I push around the barbell too much. But, on the plus side, it's no longer a big deal to move the jewelry back and forth during cleanings.
• I can also now use soap and fingers to clean my ear piercing in the shower, but I try my best not to let that be the first cleaning of the day, for fear of not getting all of the dreaded crusties that have accumulated through the night. When you are without a mirror, the details become important.

Wow, I didn't think I had anything to write about for my second week sporting a rook, but I kind of did?? Whoops. There you go. Doing research on how to take care of my piercing kind of scared me about the pain I'd naively signed myself up for. But it's been more than manageable; I love it so much! I haven't met a person yet who didn't think the rook looks wicked. Not a regret or care in the world.