How Do All Those African Tribesman Manage?!

I've been having issues with my ear piercings again. Surprisingly, not the cartilage one, as that seems to finally (thank the Heavens!) have healed up and is just waiting to be nibbled on (heehee). My seconds, too, are just fine, and I can wear normal earrings in them now and even leave the earrings out overnight without them closing. So this year's round of birthday piercings are a-okay. It's my main piercings on my ears that are giving me guff. One of them started feeling kind of sore a few days ago, as if it was nearing an infection. So I took both my normal earrings out (can't very well wear one big ass metal ring and not the other) to give the skin some time to breath. I think I might be allergic to the rubber o-rings that hold those earrings on, because if I leave them on too long the same irritation occurs. Yet I can't wear those earrings without the o-rings, so I do it anyway.

I left my earrings out for a few days, and while the tissue got back to normal looking, I knew that the piercings would also be shrinking and that when I went to put any of my earrings back in they would be a pretty tight fit. 'Cept I really didn't think that my ears would shrink that much; I think I went from an 8ga back to a loose 12ga in those few days. Which came as a shock when I shoved my 8ga earrings back in. Ouch! The piercings feel healthier now, except they're back to that warm red state of being freshly stretched. But the issue with the o-rings has me thinking I might stretch them yet again, or that I at least need to get some new earrings that don't need the rings.

The aesthetic problem with my ear piercings now is that they look fine if I'm wearing fancy large gauge earrings in the firsts and normal rings in the seconds in an obvious body mod way, but I can't wear any of my normal earrings (aside from basic studs) in the seconds without them looking goofy and out of place. So I'm hoping that I could fix that by wearing a basic plug or earlet in the firsts, something subtle that won't contrast normal earrings. Or I could do something similar to what Gem was thinking: stretch my seconds and let my first holes shrink back down to a normal size. But then that's either a lot of time spent stretching the seconds in steps up to fit my collection of 8ga earrings, or a very bloody period of stretching them straight to an 8ga. And as warm and cozy feeling as freshly stretched piercings are, it's not my favourite sensation in the world. And the months of my cartilage healing really made me value the ability to sleep with my head turned to the side. Yet I say that knowing full well that in a few months' time, I'll probably be back at the shop with my regular piercer (the owner, who calls me babydoll ::giggle:: ) stabbing a hole through the cartilage on my other ear. And if it's not my cartilage, well, it'll be something much, much worse. Gawd what a masochist. >:)