My Gauges Are Stuck.. How Do I Get Them Out?

I recently bought a pair of glass plugs that are flared, or tapered, on both ends. The middle is a 2 and the ends are 0s. My ears were 2s at the time and I was looking forward to stretching to 0. I bought another pair of gauges which were 00 tapers that actually said 0 on the package, so as I stretched my ears with those tapers the skin inside my lobe ripped and was pretty much raw flesh. The taper was difficult to stretch and did not go all the way through, making my ears actually at 0. I ended up putting the pair of plugs in my ears. My ears healed in the middle, which is a size 2. So now I'm struggling to get these plugs out of my ears because the ends are 0s as my ears are now healed to 2s. I've tried getting them out in the shower but it doesn't help, the plugs taper/flare way too quickly on the ends for me to be able to stretch my ears out and my ears have been scarred about 4 times now. I was thinking my only option is to get them surgically removed but I want to avoid that as much as possible. Any suggestions??