My comment response to Kim^ got a little long, so I decided to write a separate post instead.
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My ears are lumpy / bumpy, swollen and itchy.
Most of the time, they're a little itchy but whenever I start to think about them being itchy, they get itchier. This is a bit like the head lice thing: you start thinking about head lice and your head starts to feel a little itchy. It's also like the yawning thing: you think about yawns and you'll probably yawn. (As I typed that, I yawned twice.)
When they first started bruising, I started looking up other people's experience with cartilage piercings. I found out that quite a few people experienced bruising with their cartilage piercings, although it was more common with those who had more than one piercing done in the same ear at the same time.
I also found out loads of other things. For example, cartilage piercings are prone to "keloid" scarring (lumps and bumps around the area of the piercing).
I tried popping one of my bumps when I first noticed them and I had some blood come out and that was it.
I don't know what a healing piercing is supposed to look like: I've always been pierced with studs, which prevent you from being able to see the hole without pulling your stud around (which hurts). Being pierced with CBRs is a new experience to me - I get to see everything!
Looking back to when I got my third set done last year, I've had very few problems with these new piercings. My third set were incredibly painful - it hurt to clean them. Someone accidentally brushed them (by the time this happened, they'd been done for almost two months) and the pain that resulted made me go weak at the knees.
My new piercings will be a month old on Saturday and the only time they hurt is when I've smacked them or when I've almost pulled them out. (I keep pulling them when I'm sleeping. I did this with my nose piercing last year too.)
I can sleep comfortably on my side and have been able to do so for two (maybe three) weeks. It took about three months for me to be able to sleep on my ears at all with my third set.
Cleaning them isn't painful - in fact, I can fiddle with them all I like without them hurting. I just can't smack them. 
I can turn the rings around and thread them through my ears without causing any pain.
Another thing I learnt while looking up other people's piercing experiences is that some people need to use less salt than they're told to use by the piercer. Some people end up with dry and itchy ears if they use too much salt. 
I've never actually cleaned a new piercing with salt before; I've always used Surgical Spirit.
It doesn't really matter though. They have until Monday to sort themselves out otherwise I'm dragging my butt down to the doctor to get looked at.
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In other news, I'm breaking up with Firefox. I'll be collecting my passwords, cookies, bookmarks, etc and then moving over to Opera^.
