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]