Ear Piercing Infected? PLEASE HELP!?

Ok so about four weeks ago, I pierced my second hole myself. It was sanitized and everything and after it was done it didn't get infected or anything, it was perfectly fine. I put in my earrings that i had my first holes pierced with and everything was going great. They were sore for about a week or so, and then everything was fine. The only thing about the earrings I put in was the fact that when I tried to gets the backs off, they would get stuck to the ends of my earrings and pull on my holes, making it really painful. I decided tonight to quickly change them because I didn't want them getting stuck in my ears. When i finally got them out, they were bleeding a bit because i had to pull pretty hard on the earrings to get the backs off. When I was putting in earrings back into the hole, I realized all around that hole my skin was very firm and hard. It doesn't hurt at all, I just don't know if this is an infection or maybe just a little swollen from pulling on my holes so hard? And what should I do to fix this? Please try to suggest something that doesn't involve taking the earrings out.