You know those moments when something happens and your heart stops? This was one of those moments. I got home after a night out and was lying on my bed minding my own business when a strange feeling in my right ear came about. It felt as if I’d just been swimming and I could hear this kind of muffled sound. I thought nothing of it, but then when I moved my head, I heard the sound again.

I prodded my ear to find out what was wrong with me and noticed that one of my piercings was missing. It was a small, silver stud, about one centimeter in length, and it wasn’t in the place it was supposed to me.

I got up and turned the light on to see if the stud was somewhere on my bed. It wasn’t. It then dawned on me that it had somehow made its way into my ear. I poked my finger in my ear but couldn’t feel anything. Still a little tipsy, I decided that it was no big deal and that the stud probably wouldn’t do any harm and might just fall out by the time I woke up.

Then it hit me that this was a stupid line of thought to take and that having a metal stud stuck in my head was certainly a bad thing. I poked and poked, but to no avail. So I started shaking my head. Still nothing. The thing had fallen into my ear hole and I was beginning to have visions of going to hospital to have it removed.

I looked in the mirror and couldn’t see anything. I was a little panicked by this point, so I lent my head to one side and started hitting the other side with my left hand. After repeatedly smacking myself over the head for what felt like an eternity, the stud eventually reappeared after its brave journey towards my brain.

The whole thing totally freaked me out.