Seriously what the fuck is up with my left ear???

Hey r/stretched,

I've been sitting on 5g for a little more than half a year now, partly to be safe during stretches, and also because I'm a broke ass college student. That said, my 4g stretch has been both a victory and a failure for me in the last three weeks.

I say that because my right ear, which stretches like Mr. Fantastic, accepted the 4g plug without a hitch. Just a hot shower, coconut oil, and I popped it in with no hassle. My left ear is a different story. For some reason I can get the plug in halfway (far enough that the plug can stick out and stay in my lobe), but it feels like the backside of my lobe is Gandalf screaming 'You shall not pass.'

So I gave my left lobe a week alone still at 5g. In the meantime my right lobe is perfectly normal and I can spin the plug in my ear effortlessly, hell its even fallen out of my ear once.

After returning back to 5g for my left ear, and waiting the week after playing with the damned thing, and massaging it a little it still won't let me through.

So I tried again last week, I got stuck exactly where I said I was earlier. With a bit of impatience (which is surprising for me) I tried to push on past. I got the plug through, but I felt some stinging. Nothing crazy on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate it a crisp 1. I felt it, but only barely. I left it in for the night and decided to keep an eye on it, so I did some gaming for a couple hours. After a little while the stinging felt like it went to a little under a 2 so I got scared and plucked it out and placed the 5g back in. Things calmed down immediately, and I waited another long week. During this second week I noticed some very minimal crusty build up, on my plug and my lobe. Not the regular ear cheese stuff from what I could tell. Also my lobe was a little sore accepting the 5g this time around, but it calmed down after a day or two.

Now I'm back after the second week (so we're on week three now), I tried the 4g, got stuck, pushed passed again and this time the stinging had less bite. I'd say 0.5 on a scale of 10, and when I left it in for a couple minutes it didn't get worse, but I was aware it was in my ear, unlike my right lobe where I forget I have the damned thing in. So I got scared and pulled it out, popped the 5g in this time no remainong soreness at all, unlike the last time.

This post is already getting way too long, so I'll cut to the chase. I'm super paranoid about blowouts, any sign of resistance or pain, and I'll back off on stretching and try another day. But c'mon you've got to agree that this is getting crazy. I've been at 5g for a little under a year now for my left ear, and it won't budge. I'm using glass, I've been doing 0.5mm jumps for all my stretches, I wait the recommended amount of time, if not more than that, for each stretch. What am I doing wrong?

Also does anyone know the symptoms for a blowout? Does what I described sound like the potential for one? Or am I overreacting?

I'm beyond frustrated at this point, so all help is seriously appreciated. I really want to do this right and go bigger than 4g, but I don't want to fuck anything up along the way.

TL;DR My right lobe is the elastic Mr. Fantastic. My left lobe is Gandalf telling me I shall not pass the 4g plug through after I've waited ~7+ months to stretch it. When I have gotten the plug through the left lobe it stung a little, and scared me so I would downsize back to 5g and wait a week. I did this two times, and I still haven't managed to get the 4g through without feeling off about it. Paranoid of blowouts.

Edit: I forgot to mention that no bleeding has occured whatsoever in the time I've attempted to stretch. Also I added a tl;dr for the lazy :p