from 18 to 10g, need help! please reply

[jmoney21]

So i wanted to give this a shot, i pulled out my standard sized studs and started feeding my 10g taper in and eventually got it in all the way (yesterday) and now today their still in all the way but my earlobes are a lil warm, red, and puffy, is this normal?

[jmoney21]

also no bleeding or anything, and i can turn them, only feel irritation when i touch them

[powpowrawr]

Your ear is probably pretty traumatized from such a huge jump. Just give it time to heal. You'd probably feel ready in a week or two but just to be safe I'd say give it a month. Even if you feel ready your ears would say otherwise and you'd probably feel the tenderness in them. Your ears will be happy in the long run. Getting ears that look like "cat butt" isn't worth it.

[ast.riske]

I recommend you downsize and let your ears heal, then stretch again without skipping sizes. You skipped 3 sizes in that jump and probably caused tearing which can lead to scarring.

If your ears are puffy and red, you are probably working on an infection. You definitely want to avoid that if you can. How did you clean the taper before you used it? Warm sea salt solution soaks will help the swelling, after you downsize.

Short version: downsize and soak your ears. Stretch one size at a time after you heal. If you do this, you should be okay.