I got my belly button pierced about 2 and a half months ago in August. I've been cleaning it regularly the whole time with all natural soap and a sea-salt soak. The whole time the top hole has had a red ring around it, and the bottom hole hasn't really given me much grief. It hurt a lot for about the first month and a half, but the pain has virtually subsided. It's been oozing what I believe pus for a good month instead of the normal lymph. I will admit that I was a bit eager and tried to switch to two other jeweled piercings within the first few weeks, and I know I shouldn't have. But now I've switched back to the initial bar I was pierced with.

About a month ago I accompanied my mom to a doctor's appointment, and she brought up my piercing to him. He took a brief look at it and prescribed me some very strong antibiotics. I was hesitant to take them because I didn't believe it was truly infected at the time. So, I skipped the antibiotics and started cleaning it more frequently and using an antibiotic ointment. The redness had almost completely subsided, but then it just exploded in redness again, and when I took out my piercing to do a thorough cleaning, it bled a little. I also started cleaning it with cotton balls and hydrogen peroxide. Today, about a week later, the redness is worse than ever and it's oozing blood. I caved in and took my first dose of the antibiotic a short while ago, and I'll continue on taking it for the full course.

What I don't understand is that, if it's this badly infected, why isn't my piercing warm to the touch or very painful? It hardly hurts at all, only a very very slight sting on the top hole from where the piercing has started to dig in. Is it possibly to tell if it's truly infected, or has my body rejected the piercing? I do want to keep the piercing, but if taking it out will help it heal faster I'll deal with it. I don't want to take out the piercing and lock in an infection that will spread!