Hi Sarah, I have 3 piercings in each ear. I just turn the sleeper (ring) joins around away from the hole. Had a problem with 9 caret gold sleepers, they turned orange in my ears, so use cheaper ones one can buy at the chemist. No problem. If kept clean (holes and earrings, I do mine once each month or every time I change my earrings), no problems, no infections etc. I find the studs points stick into my head behind my ears at night when laying down, it's something one has to get used to and you do over time give it a chance. Gunk from soap, shampoo etc tends to mount on these so suggest you change them at least weekly. I only own one pair of expensive gold earing my mum gave me years ago and I still wear them every day. Doesn't really need to be an expensive thing with earings. DIY it's cheaper. Your choice if you enlargen hole, I personally don't like it, and once it is done, you are stuck with it and without anything in them they look rank. They can be costly to fill.
Your choice however, I wish you luck. I personally like/love my 3 each ear. and then I can wear whatever takes my fancy in any combination. I like options.
I have no regrets. Your holes might stil be there, just need outside skin layer opened up. Keep clean and disinfect well.

Good point about the stretched piercings Faye! The dentist who pierced my tongue had stretched ear piercings & I thought they looked really nice. It would suck to get tired of them and have to have surgery to get them closed up though!

I'm actually allergic (or at least have a very bad reaction) to gold jewellery. I've had really good quality gold earrings cause horrible infections in an ear piercing that had been healed up for over 10 years. That's why I stick to steel or a good quality silver.

I've been thinking about just buying some sterile needles, swabs and captive rings from a seller on ebay and reopening the piercings on my ear myself. They're open on the outside but closed in the middle so it would be incredibly easy to get them in the same place again.

I have 10 piercings in each ear (nowhere else). I have captive bead rings in them. I had the first ones done when I was a little girl. When my ex and I split I slowly added 4 more on each ear. I didn't want to go higher because after the 10 total I was going to go into the cartilage. That didn't last long. Eventually I had 9 on my right side and 5 on the left. I sleep on the left side so I didn't want to go into the cartilage on my left ear. About 4 years ago I decided I wanted more and added one more on the right and 5 on the left. I have niobium rings in different colours in 14 of the holes and I have gold captive beads in the newest holes. I don't take them out but I wash them in the shower every day but only with water. Once a month I use Spectro-Jel on them.