Post 5 months & so far so good

I don't have my phone on me, so I can't take a photo like I usually would. However I will edit this at a later date and show you what it looks like. In all honesty, I knew my bands were secure tightly at the very base but I guess there must be something deeper with keloids than just being on the surface, in my case anyway.

In my case, where the keloid used to be, is not just a normal ear (like my other ear that never had a keloid). My now keloid-free ear is sensitive where the keloid used to be (as if there's an invisible keloid there, almost as if there is a stump -- if we talk in tree language). Visibly, there is evidence that there used to be something there, yet it is tonnes flatter than how it was initially. I'm not insecure about it like I used to be in the beginning of the journey.

Another honest moment, ever since the time of my last post I have stopped using aloe vera juice and have left it untreated once it had completed healed. There has been little change since there. The biggest change would have to be colour. It has darkened a fair bit.

In conclusion, keloid hasn't risen. Colour has darkened. Ear is still sensitive. It's nothing I'm too worried about, I'd still tie my hair up and expose it with no shame of insecurities. Nobody has reacted to it or brought it to my attention. My actions in the future? Is to treat it with some wart remover of some sort. Will let you know when it's all confirmed.

Don't you worry, I'll post a before and after shortly lol.

Day 24 drop off day! case closed

The same routine continues to occur. Shower deep rinse, clean and tighten.. forget, repeat. It got boring, the fact it's still there, the pains from accidental collision, became too sensitive. So boring that I raised the scissors lol! I woke up today, with the intention to cut it off with a pair of sanitized scissors after the deepest rinse in the shower to really soften it up ;)

Stood in the mirror, scissors raised, worst scenario playing in my head (I snip the scissors, they're blunt and because of the pain I'd yank the jammed keloid stem off.. with an army off keloids forming because of the skin trauma, and crazy bleeding.. lol). I lower the scissors and began snipping the air, thinking how much more easier to snap these scissor blades together down here away from my ear...

I play with my keloid, just to see how much was still attached. I pulled on it slowly ): so sad at this point, just to see if the stem will hurt.. and I pulled and I pulled and I thought hey???? This is pretty far off? And it detached, without any pain whatsoever (it was funny, cos while it hung, it hurt more than when it actually came off) so thankful! Tyj!

I gave a big HA! Of laughter as my tiny bit of hope was relieved... I am a keloid rubber band removal victor lols.

I continue to sanitize with dettol and top it off with aloe vera, straight from the plant. I refridgerate it, snap a fresh piece until I move onto another leaf.

So happy, the pain is gone and I'm free (: it took forever! For next time, I wouldn't use elastic bands, I'd use tiny rubber bands. Cos it doesn't lose its elasticity as much (meaning if done tightly enough, you could get away without the string, which is more ideal).

Day 19, please die stem

My keloid is dead dead dead. Black and hard and ugly. However the stem is getting smaller, yayyy, but still alive! I cannot just cut it off unless I want it to hurt and take forever to heal, which is not what I wanna do. Still waiting for it to drop off, it's beyond day 18, but hopefully by day 22 it'll be gone ): so sad! But each day brings me closer. These extensions are guidelines from other peoples' journey. Keeping in mind that everyone is different, and mine just happens to take forever.

The stem is now starting to hurt when I clean. It's very sensitive, especially when I try get under the keloid (lifting it to get under, like I said, it's literally hanging). It's soft from the shower rinse, but when it dries.. it gets hard and sets.

I've cut the excess pink thread (yesterday) to attach another piece of thread (amber, yellow). Every time I tighten it, it kinda bleeds. So I just wipe it up with a clean cotton bud and we're good to go.

Around the keloid, on my actual ear, it still continues to flake ever so slightly. Enough to not flake everywhere, and enough to accumulate and swab up when it's cleaning time. There's the occasional itch, so itch carefully. Still sore if it ever gets bumped, as usual.

Day 15, update since break lol

Brief summary until now.
The keloid is still very much there, still very much attached. However, now I would say it appears to be shriveling. Slightly, but it is what it is lol.
The day before yesterday, I had taken the keloid for a super rinse (to get it clean and soft per usual via shower), then I had tightened the string as tight as I could thinking it'll detach itself, (I wouldn't be mad if it did lol) but it didn't!! However, it started to bleed. Not crazily, but it did. I don't know how, but instead of bleeding at the base, where the string was being tightened, it bled at the top of the rubber band tower. Anyway, clean clean clean all done.

It hangs like this, so much that if I stomp, I can feel it tremble (lol). It's still flaking a bit. especially when it gets an itch. Itch carefully!! It's not all that sensitive but it does hurt when you attempt to take it off. I don't think the stem has fully died off at this point because of that.

I aim for 18 days before this keloid drops. Ive accepted the fact that I'm in the slow group of keloid killing lol, which was hard when I thought I would take 7 days. When day 19 hits and this thing is still here, I'd be devastated!! But still, each day brings me closer. Like I've said before, I wouldn't want to tear the stem that's still alive, before I traumatize my skin for it to cause another keloid ): who knows.. it would be IN the ear next time!! Chin up. Time will come

Here's a YouTube video I like to watch lols. It's comforting. Informative. I like to research and research to give me a little bit more hope than I already have (: and I'd like to share that with you if you're the same way. Enjoy :P

Day 11, tick tock

Boring boring boring..
I don't want to twist it, or play with it. I know it's falling off for sure. I'm still continuing with my rinses and cleans. I don't know if I want to continue tightening.. just so I can snip off the excess, still deciding.

I'm at work, still hiding my dead keloid with my hair. I pinned my loose thread up and into my hair, careful not to tug on it.

Waiting process.. will be back when the drop happens, or when something significant happens. Tick tock..

Day 10, cut cut cut this base!

As I wake, the keloid is very very dry. It's black, it's hard, squeeze it and there's no feeling. The base is cutting off from one side (the back side), it's visible. Because it's so dry, there's a crust to it that defines the separation of the keloid from the base. A crust of it dying rather than a crust of dried residue. Now the keloid can wiggle back and forth a bit like a wiggly tooth.

The first two are the ugly truth of a keloid in the morning. Dried crust which is perfectly normal, nothing alarming at all lol. Just the keloid casually dying. Third pic is the keloid after a rinse, cleaned up the crusting and finally pic number four. After cleaning. It is also showing the cutting of the base. You can see the part of my ear (further north of the keloid) where it used to sit.. now it is slowly tearing from the root. No going back now, it's going to fall when it's ready.

I gotta admit, I was tempted to play and play with it while cleaning it to get it to fall off on my watch. But it's best not to. I feel that the more it does it on its own, the less the skin will be traumised, thus avoiding it from causing an army of keloids afterward. 

Getting impatient to be honest.

Day 9, flakes!! I gotta feeling :p

Today it started flaking! And while cleaning, I could lift half the keloid off without it hurting!!!!
I didn't want to post here, I was discouraged because nothing was happening for so long ): but here it is! something happened! kuch kuch hota hai (something is happening - best Indian movie ever, I'm just saying lol)

I hope this keeps up. My way of treating my keloid has kinda changed from trial and error throughout this journey. Below is what's currently working for me.

Keloid routine:

• I clean when I can (morning and night at the very least, which is all the time tbh)
• I tighten the string only after a shower (I rinse it in warm shower water, get it to loosen up, clean it and then tighten -- that way the thread isn't fighting against dried residue, dead skin etc while you're pulling on it)
• I forget about it for the rest of the day until I wake the next morning

Blood and puss? I don't really see often, or at all for that matter. There had been dried puss, but I never see it in liquid form. I'd say my keloid is very clean, no noticeable bleeding and pussing (if there is, it's very very little to nothing). As long as you keep it clean, it will stay unnoticeable lol, buildup ain't cute.

My ear felt itchy and I remembered I still had to clean it since I had showered a little while earlier. While it was still moistened from the deep shower rinse, I went to clean and tighten asap before it dried. And I saw it had been flaking! A YouTube video had told me to expect this so I wasn't worried. I was excited! -- here's the video that made me drop everything and reach for them rubber bands lol

I cleaned it with Dettol and the excess flakes are gone. These are back and front views before cleaning. Yes, she said only her keloid was flaking and not her actual ear but one thing for sure is that, everyone is different, and this is how my ear is reacting. As far as I'm concerned, everything is going swell lol and if it's not, I'll be sure to keep you posted ;)

[funny story, my keloid sticks out so much -- that when I slid into the car, my keloid is the only part that brushes up against the car window.. ouch, but not bad. Luckily it's lost all feeling, however at the base it's a different story]

Day 7, losing hope ):

I really expected this thing to be shriveled up and hanging by a thread. But it looks like I'll be one of those people that takes 2-3 weeks to come off... All those extra rubber bands (4 in total) and string (2).

I'm on my 7th day... And although it's black, hard and lost feeling, the base may be cutting, but it still seems mighty as can be! (Very well attached by the flesh rather than dried anything). My keloid looks like it's being elongated, modified by these stacks of rubber bands, not shriveling one bit. I really did expect it to fall off by now ): feeling discouraged and low self esteem due to how ugly it is and how sore it can be when bumped. I'm gonna keep going, I know it'll work out in due time.. I'll be feeling terrible until it falls off.  

The worst thing that could happen is if I'm pulling the string tighter, and the keloid heals over it, so that the string is half way through the base itself )': and by the time it's tightened all the way through, it had "regenerated" already with no effect )': I need to pull it together and just forget it. Clean it, tighten it, forget it.

During my research process, I've heard of keloid rubber band forums where heaps of motivation and support is for people going through this. I had no idea I would need the support, so my curiosity lead me that way. Good people. http://www.realself.com/forum/keloid-removal-string

(Funny how the dates to this blog doesn't match the actual dates here. Must be running on American time, cos I have two posts on the 30th. Bear with me please, my Day#s are correct lol)

Day 6, show and tell :D

Screw cleaning every other day, cleaning every morning and night for me. Lol

Getting super impatient because this keloid seems to be taking its time. While I'm waiting for things to move along lol, today I will be showing you everything(?) / most of the things I used along my journey with this keloid.

This is what I used to disinfect my ear using a q-tip. The so called "ice" I used. It's a cooler stick you freeze and put in your drink bottle to make it cold, like ice does, only it doesn't dilute whatever it is. I thought it was appropriate because I didn't want it to drip everywhere. No, I don't use it in my drink bottle lol and if I do, there are spares in the freezer for that (: Next we have the elastic bands I used. I have.. four in total right now and a piece of thread. I used regular thread, please don't bash me for it lol, feel free to use dental floss or the thread surgeons use for stitching wounds LOL.

I'm always tightening it whenever I can (: it's a trying journey ):

• I tied yet another piece of thread around my keloid (the old one is blocked by the new band I put over it) 
• I tied it once to fasten it (like the first tie of a shoe lace)
• Then I wounded one side round and round the keloid, staying as close to the base as possible
• Finish it by tying it once again (the same as you started)
• Simply snip the excess thread (safety precaution, don't want to pull on it by accident)
• Now you can tighten by pulling carefully at the two strands

This is how I can tighten and tighten it without new thread, however I'm sure there are better ways to knot this.

(btw, this was written on the 29th? Idk why the dates are being bogus)

Day 5, could this be the cutting of the base O:

This morning, strands of hair were attached to the keloid. It was easily removed, simply by separating them, literally. However, what was interesting, was a whole lot of dried residue were on the strands (it's what made them stick to it). So I cleaned it once again, this time being sure to get around all areas.

I've noticed that the base is starting to cut from the back. I was thinking of adding another elastic band, but I just don't want to be in pain for church, so I'll wait til afterward (: here's a pic of it when I had finished the cleaning process today. It is obvious the base is getting smaller, the elastic bands are getting looser (they're thick in appearance, it's not tight) and more visible due to the base's shrinking/cutting. I'm beginning to think that the bands are sitting there comfortably and not contracting or straining. So just to keep the tightness fresh, I'll add another band to keep the process working and not paused due to slack bands.

I wrapped a pink thread to the keloid (3rd pic above) as tight as I could until discomfort occurred. I didn't feel satisfied so I eventually added another elastic band. The annoying tightness is back, but I prefer this to no pain. It makes me think it's actively working lol. I attempted to pull the keloid off ever so gently and saw it wasn't ready. (I really thought I would be those lucky people whose keloids drop off in less than a week lol) MAJOR pain when it's bumped. I once forgot about it and accidentally leaned on it.

Get this keloid dead and gone. Excited.

Day 4, clean clean clean clean CLEAN!

I'm noticing the base getting tighter and tighter. Cleaning is very crucial, simply because you don't want it to get infected and cause it to form an army of keloids afterward, yikes. Also.. you don't want any residue from the keloid, dried fluid, to act as glue to prevent it from falling off. These are the views after showering (soak, rinse under warm water).

Went to a 21st birthday today and had to hide my ear again (mind you, I usually band aid it real tight so I ignore it altogether and wear my hair up like I had nothing to hide lol). The pain is nothing more than an annoyance. It's hardly ever there. Big boo boo when it gets bumped ): can't wait for it to be cleaning time lols.

(Update) Now its bed time, and cleaning has been done. This is how I wore my hair to the birthday. I still wanted it up, I'm not too fond of down-dos (my hair is super long). So this picture was taken after clean up. There was hardly any, if any residue around and on the keloid, but a clean is still great. Not gonna lie, this is the first time I've cleaned the keloid with anything other than a rinse in the shower. I feel so much more better. I'd say I would clean it every other day. Only because I don't want to kill bacteria everyday that'll cause it to kill good bacteria as well and have fungus grow on me as a result (my mindset when the doctors told me to not use protex, the soap, on a daily basis for the same reason).

Although no large chunks of residue was present, the q-tip did get a tint of yellow. I don't see any visible residue, and I can now see all 3 elastic bands I used.

Pain has gone down, not feeling a thing. It doesn't sting when I applied disinfectant on it.

Day 3, the stinging is back!

At first, there was nothing to be felt. I thought it would be painless like this for the rest of the journey but it's not. There's an ever so slight pain in my ear, as if I had first put the bands on (the kind where I know it's actively working because I can feel something is fighting it lols). It used to come and go very quickly, but now... there is a slight discomfort, there's no denying it.

Due to how 3D it is now (I used to plaster it down so tight, so it would be flatter), I couldn't wear my plaster like how I used to. Firstly, it was sticky (no padding of any sort) and it's not ideal in this case (remember how it tore a layer of skin along with the plaster?). Secondly, plasters with the padding cannot wrap around it comfortably! So I was better off hiding it with my hair. Luckily the keloid is super dry, kind of tough (tougher than yesterday) so my hair wont be an issue to it.

This is what I look like when I cover it at work (hair has to be tied up neatly). What the side view looks like... and what's going on underneath. I'm so insecure about it! I can not wait for this experience to be over lol (just when I forgot about the pain, it's back lol. Just an annoying discomfort rather than anything close to unbearable) -- still in the morning.

(update) It's noon and I'm home from work. I'm worried that the elastic bands have lost its elasticity and is not just sitting comfortably around the keloid. Just to be safe, I carefully added a new elastic band to keep the tightness fresh. This time it's blue. Now the discomfort is most certainly there lol. It's not so bad.. I don't feel the urge to run for the ice at the moment like I did on day 1.

At first, the blue band was visible, so I'm guessing, because its elasticity is fresh, it has cut deeper underneath the other two bands. I notice the base getting smaller since the new band. I also notice that parts of the keloid are in fact black. I'm assuming the keloid has officially died in these parts and will spread to cover the whole keloid until the real wait begins.

This pain is very distracting. Not bad, but distracting. I just want the healing process to begin already.. This journey is serious, what a commitment.

Day 2, ripping the band aid off :O

Alright! If I were to do this again, I would not have put the band aid on lol. Consequence? As I peeled back the plaster, the thinnest layer of skin from the keloid also peeled back along with it. I notice liquid start to drip at this tear.

Of course I didn't take pictures of it, I didn't wanna gross out my audience. I thought it would be fine if I sealed the plaster back over and slept it off (from Day 1, it's now the early hours of Day 2). However! Thoughts of the keloid leaking, then drying up and the careful removal of crust with a q-tip in the morn didn't seem pleasant.

So I stripped the band aid very carefully, to reveal a very purple keloid (about 12-13 hours since the elastic bands were put on). Picture 1 is a holistic view of that, picture 2 is a close up shot of 1. You can see the two different shades of purple where the skin had peeled off to reveal an almost raw keloid. I then soaked / rinsed it while having a shower, cleaned it carefully, patted it down with tissue and now it's dry and matte (picture 3).

By the way! I used sticky plaster tape without the padded tissue. Only because this was how I always hid my keloid before I started this keloid killing journey. I wouldn't avoid plasters all together but for now I will let the keloid breathe, however.. when I'm working, proper plasters will be used. Letting the keloid breathe as much as possible would be a good idea, to air it out and to not let it sit in its own mess (if it were to leak due to my mistake of having placed a sticky plaster over it).

(update) Now it's the morning, I've slept and woke up and now it looks like this:

It looks quite the same, however the band at the base seems to be more compressed than it was before I slept. The colour is also more vibrant with the red undertone (the part where the first layer of skin had peeled, the near raw keloid). Because of this, the keloid has a tendency to get wet, so through the night I slept with the back of my hairs slicked down with gel. I wasn't going to take chances with my stray hairs to dry and stick to the keloid. Though it turned out fine. It is now much more rounder rather than the oval shape it used to have.

When I said the pain had stopped in my previous post? I suspect the keloid had died at that moment. This is moving faster than I thought. Now just waiting for it cut into the base, turn black and fall off.

Different views of it tonight, not too much of a change, it doesn't leak, very dry but still fragile. ): can it hurry up and fall. Pain level is hardly anything. However, there is a slight tingle in the ear where the keloid is now. Hopefully it's the cutting at the base slowly happening.

I secretly don't want to wear a plaster and go to work while it's like this. But I need the money! So I'll have to suck it up.

Day 1, applying the bands

I have a keloid from a helix piercing that occurred about two or so years ago. It got so bad I became very shy and embarrassed about it, so I would plaster it ALWAYS! As unattractive as it was, it was better than an exposed keloid lol. If you weren't familiar with it, it'll look like a band aid over a piercing, since I work in the food industry.

The rubber band method was introduced to me via the internet. The video above shows you basically what it can do to your keloid. I've thought about suffocating the keloid with string once upon a time but dismissed the idea. Now that I've seen this I thought, why not? Let's do this :P Here we go:

So this is my naked ear and these are the elastic bands I used. I wrapped a band around the keloid twice. I did this with two bands for extra security. Just in case you didn't know, that's what the third pic shows if you hadn't noticed the yellow and purple bands I used lol. Then I finally plastered it. Just to hide my project lol. No keloid killing reasoning behind it hha.

First impression! It feels.. active lol. Just the fact that you can feel the tightness of the elastic bands actually working is quite comforting. If this keeps up, I hope it turns numb on its own :p

A couple of hours later, the discomfort turns annoying!! So annoying you just cannot ignore it! Something has to be done... not too keen on pain killers.. so I'll settle for.. Ice ;)

Ice was a good temporary solution. But it's not practical, I decided to sleep the pain away while it was numb :p woke up to a not so surprising stinging sensation!! It felt like the keloid had come alive with a throbbing heartbeat to it! Glowing at every beat like cartoons do when they stub their toe lol. Looked in the mirror to see what was going on under there!!! Nothing was going on -.-

A short while later, in bou 30 mins, there is no pain whatsoever! Not what I expected, but I'm not complaining lol. Tyj. After poking it a lil to make sure it was still "working", I can safely say it's still active. Any concerns in regard to this method I'm doing, is the fact that these bands can lose its elasticity. So I'm thinking I would add another band every few days. 

Last minute update, I began to peel the plaster off to see any changes. Bad idea, the keloid had turned dark purple and the skin has become very fragile. So no-go on peeling it all back.