Recently stretched to 14g, and I have a few questions.

[beka_2013]

Hello Everyone

alright, so I am new to ear stretching, I am only at 14g. I have been at 16g for over a month and I have had my new plugs in for about a day.
Now I have always followed precautions and taken it slow, never any bleeding or anything like that. However when I went to clean my ears this morning, I found a little puss at the top of my right ear. It isn't swollen or obscenely red, it's simply tender. I'm worried the puss means I tore my ear or whatnot, but there was no blood yesterday and the whole stretching process was a piece of cake.
Sorry about the long explanation...My question is, should I take out my plugs and downsize? Or am I being a nervous nellie, and should I leave them in and simply clean them more?
Believe me, I want to do this correctly and not hurt my body or risk ear surgery!

[corazon_de_oro]

Is it sore at all? It's possible that it could just be dead skin cells, or what a lot of people call "ear cheese." It could also be lymph, which your body secretes with any wound. If it's lymph it means you stretched a little too fast; instead of waiting a month between sizes you might try waiting 6+ weeks. Hot sea salt soaks will help heal your lobes, and draw the lymph out, too. But it's very, very unlikely that it's pus.

[Hardware]

Nah Beka, your ears sound fine to me. Tenderness is normal post stretching. Just keep them clean using sea salt soaks

[inkkitten]

I am now at 6mm (2g) and have experienced the same thing each time i have stretched up a size. It usually 2 days after stretching that the pussy stuff appears.
I take out my plugs/tunnels and soak my ear in a salt/warm water solution for about 10 minutes twice a day. The tenderness and pussy stuff will clear up in a day but i soak them for around a week to make sure they are healing up properly.

[beka_2013]

Thank you all very much

@corazon_de_oro: I think I understand what you mean by lymph, I found a lymph 'mass' around my plug last night as I was cleaning.

@inkkitten: Yes, I am using sea salt soaks. I think they're great haha.

Also I realized what a dummy I am, I think I made my ear sore myself on top of the healing. I didn't even remember that I had put antibacterial gel around my ear and I have no doubt that was part of the pain.