doing so well. Better than anybody had expected. I'd finally gotten the courage to get my sternum pierced. I was so exited and nervous. I really wanted a madison but I figured this was a better idea. So I had a surface piercing done 2 inches above my cleavage line. This was 3 weeks ago. Now it's out. It crawled out of my skin little by little and after 1 week it was crooked and 2/3 out. It only took ONE WEEK!!! I always thought that rejection took a month or so. I was wrong. I had my favorite artist do this piercing because I have such huge faith in her. She is incredibly honest with me and has refused to do certain piercings on me (including a triangle and a madison -- mad=until she knew my body better). Her studio is always clean and well lit. I was in good hands. She pierced me 3 times before and I've had no problems with those. I knew that there was a very high rejection rate for surface piercings. She showed me the scar of her sternum which rejected several years ago. It's very small. I took the risk because I wanted to be different and do my own thing. Ottawa is not very open about this type of thing. I kind of like that. I like to be seperated from the pack. On May 31, 2000, I went to see her and she set me up with a sternum piercing. She cleaned me, marked me (which took 15 minutes), sat me down (in her leather chair!!!), clamped me with the regular plyers, set the needle through my skin, and finally put a barbell through. She used a straight one inch barbell because she thought it would be just fine and it was a better size than the other ones she was considering. It immediately bruised and swelled, it rose about 3/4 of an inch. I got pictures of it because I wanted a memory. I walked out of there with the biggest endorphin rush. I loved it. I took great care of my new piercing to avoid infection. I washed it twice a day with spectrojel and whenever I got out of the pool or after a work-out. It looked so good. I was really proud of this new "necklace". It was bruised for a week and then it dissepated. The swelling took about 5 days to go down. It was looking great, just a little red, by the second week. I was so thrilled, it was doing great. I saw my piercer and she was quite happy with it. The swelling had gone done, as I said, which is the reason I thought, that there was a little more room in the barbell. In the end, it was begining it's journey to the outside world. In the next week, it just crawed it's way out. I went to see my piercer and she was just astounded. In one week, I'd lost my piercing. It was now crooked and totally rejecting. Her friend was just as shocked. This part... it still makes me cry because I really did love this piercing. I was part of my body. It was so hard convincing society, not to mention my mother, that this piercing was not lethal. I just loved it. It was so me. And I had a hissy fit when she took it out. This was yesterday and I'm still pouting.
The removal, unlike the insertion, took only a few seconds. I sat down (in the leather chair!!!), took a deep breath in, held back the tears, and she took it out. It pussed for a few hours after, liquid drooling from my healing holes. She cleaned it and I left promicing to come back to do it all again. I shed a few tears as I say that because I know I'll do it again but I also know that I'll have to wait until after the summer (1 1/2 month from now) and after I'm out of chlorine for 8 hours a day because I'm a swimming instructor. I can't wait that long. She asked me if I was under any stress and I said no, however I took it back when I thought of my life: exams, yearbook to be completed, the breaking of a year-long relashinship, getting riled on BME for not having a correct surface piercing... no wonder it didn't like me!!! And I used bactine which aparently is horrid for surfaced because it's too strong. I didn't know this before and I'd used it to heal my navel, my nipple and occationally my hood. However, I will not give up this easily. I will repierce it as soon as I can with a surface bar this time. I'll do just about anything to keep this piercing. I'll do as many times as I need to. If anybody has any info that would help a surface to heal better or faster, write me at rossichick@hotmail.com Thanks all, April