After a week of draining my ear, I focused on recovery to heal my cauliflower ear so I didn’t exercise. I sucked it up and wore my ear guards in class for the first time. Hint* any strenuous cardio activity after draining the ears will eventually cause the ear to be filled with blood again quickly.
In class only two comments were made in regards to the ear guards; one person shared their experience about having to reconstruct his ear but since then the whole class was smooth as butter.
I am someone who embraced this feeling of my ears protected with my new ear guards on. They were only about $15 bucks from Amazon and provided the padding I needed with the comfort. There’s a sense of protection as I slap the side of my ears feeling the semi-hard shells that protect them. I feel invincible since there is one less thing I have to worry about. Now I can go about class not worrying about causing any and each ear to flail up again. The pain and negative experiences I had with researching and draining cauliflower ear the previous weeks was too awful.
I had imagined a negative experience coming back to class wearing these silly “bras” on my head with a double mouth guard. Yes it is likely I will stand out since no one wears these things. Was I being extra or not macho? There was a slight percentage I could have skipped class and didn’t go for whatever excuse my mind came up with but I ignored those thoughts and stuck to the plan to return to class. I also didn’t like the feeling of choking myself while wearing these ear guards under my chin. Luckily, in class I adjusted them to fit onto my chin which helped feel way more comfortable.
During lesson these ear guards stayed on and I still could hear. They became comfortable and didn’t get in the way of training whatsoever. Make sure your partner clearly tap out just in case you can’t hear it under cuffed ears. Now as for rolling they are doing a great job. Do not put them in the washer or dryer just wipe them off.
Throughout class I just focused on my lesson and nothing more – leaving any previous negative chatter initially before class to subdue and never resurfaced. Class was super fun as we refined learning the leg lock, counters, and how to switch North-South from side control.
I’m glad I did go back to class and ignored my ego.