New Rook Piercing Acting Up [pictures included]

[zoelawliet]

Hello! I got my rook done about two weeks ago and for the first week and a half the healing was going really well! It was just slightly sore if I would accidentally touched it but for the most part I would even forget it was there. I went on this last Friday and got a bit drunk (so I don't really recall what exactly happened) but when I woke up my rook was so sore and swollen. I think I might have slept on it funny or put pressure on it all night! I know I'm not allergic to the metal and my body has never reacted this this with any other of my cartilage piercings.

Without any swelling the cartilage where a rook piercing would be on both my ears are fairly thin. Here are some pics for comparison imgur.com/a/SuUAh#hXuXXjk

I've been not touching it at all other than cleaning it daily with sea salt and letting it soak in a warm sea salt solution but the swelling has not really gone down and it's still very sore warmly throbbing.

Is there anything else I can do other than wait it out and continue with the soaks? :(

[Boo]

You can develop allergies but if it's titanium then you're ok anyway.

Hitting it/sleeping on it can see cartilage piercings flare up like this.

Try the following to help:

Cold soaks
Extra pillow at night
Ibuprofen (if you can take it)
Chamomile compresses
Ring/travel pillow to avoid putting pressure on it
Don't touch it or poke it with cotton buds

Signs of a genuine piercing infection are severe pain, excessive swelling/embedding, oozing green smelly pus, bleeding, hot to touch, very red looking, generally feeling unwell.

I'd keep an eye on that bar as there's not much room left, if it's not settling after a couple of days go see your piercer.

[Toofwess]

Yikes that is swollen ! Hazel has given you good advice. Listen to her ^_^

You've probably slept on it too much. If you've been drinking the pain of sleeping on it might not have woken you up like it normally would've, so you've squished it for longer than you usually would.