Before I got my keloid removal surgery I did a lot of deep diving research on Reddit for others experiences with the procedure. I didn’t really find a lot of before & after pictures of where my keloid was located since it’s on the top of my ear so wanted to provide some for anyone in the same boat as me! I got an industrial piercing in 2019 and the keloid didn’t start forming until 2021 only on the top hole and I got to keep the bottom one and it has shown no signs of growing a keloid. I had 5 Kenalog injections approximately 6 weeks apart that only softened the keloid but did nothing to shrink it or improve the appearance. I made the decision to have the keloid removed in October of 2023 because it was very itchy and slightly painful, my insurance covered the removal so I only had to pay my copay and a really minimal amount towards my deductible so i’m not sure how much the removal cost. The removal was done by a plastic surgeon that I was referred to by my dermatologist and the procedure lasted only about 15 minutes and I didn’t really experience any pain afterwards just a slight ache after the numbing wore off. The healing was kind of scary because I was worried if I didn’t do something right it could increase the chance of it coming back even more but I think it ultimately went okay! It was started to get infected about a week after the removal but my dermatologist gave me an ointment that I used for 10 days that helped. It has only been 3 months since my removal but so far I haven’t experienced any itching or tingling to indicate that it may be growing back, I am doing injections every 6 weeks to try to prevent it from recurring and have had 1 so far. The first picture is what my keloid looked like before I got it removed and after all the injections prior to surgery, the second is what it looked like 5 days after the surgery, third is approx. a week 1/2 after surgery when it was starting to get infected. Fourth is 6 days after the third pic and once the infection started clearing up due to the ointment, the 5th picture is almost 7 weeks after the surgery and a week after I had gotten my first Kenalog injection to try to prevent recurrence. The last picture was taken this morning and is what my ear currently looks like, I will try to keep this post updated regularly to keep tabs on how my ear is looking. I hope this really helps someone!