Why are my stretched ears so sensitive

Ok so I've had my ears stretched for 6 years now and I've gone up to a 26mm, every time I used to try wear an acrylic plug/tunnel or wear a taper my ears used to have such a bad reaction! Like swell up& be very sore and red until i changed it. I took my stretcher out a few months back because of a job but I left that job so last night I put a 14mm taper as it shrunk down to that size and guess what, my ears bloody swollen and red but not painful ? What the hell am I supposed to do seriously ? I clean my ears very well I'm not blind when it comes to body mods as I've had sooo many but I'm stuck with this 🙄

Btw I never rushed stretching or jumped sizes , always went up 2mm a time as advised & did it slowly