UPDATE: not keloid or irritation bump - "pyogenic granuloma"

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of this weird "growth" I have going on next to my conch piercing. I was adviced to see a doc. I figured it would take a few weeks before I got an appointment - well, I got an emergency appointment the same day I called, and a bit of a cancer scare... but all's good because as u/georgethezebra theorized, it's granulation tissue and very benign. Unusual enough to not be well known in relation to piercings on the Google but not completely unheard of!

The full story is, I had a nasty cold this past week with fever chills, muscle aches, general malaise, sore throat, canker sores all over my mouth, tongue, throat, vertigo... Didn't connect this to the ear growth at all though, since I've had that for a month.

This weekend I posted on Reddit, was adviced to go to the doctor, but we figured it probably was some granulation issue.

Then I called the doctor's clinic this morning and explained about this weird growth that bleeds and won't heal over... Didn't connect this to the virus I just had even though the nurse asked if I'd been feeling ill.

Well, I talked to the nurse at 9 a.m, she wanted me in for an emergency appointment at 10 am. I really couldn't make it and asked for an appointment on Wednesday, she said they couldn't promise they'd have any free emergency appointments Wednesday but the latest they had today was 2 p.m. and I should *really* consider coming in. Still not connecting the dots here...

So I get to the appointment, and the nurse starts talking about "granuloma". Now, at this point I've only considered "granulATION" not "granulOMA" and the distinction is quite important because "-oma" means "tumor". She wants to send me straight over to the doctor. This is when it clicks - I work with cancer patients and in the last few months I've had a couple of patients with ear tumors - one had to remove his whole ear and the other had metasteses all throughout his body, palliative. Fever, malaise, all of that can be symptoms of cancer. Growths that bleed and won't heal are not unusally cancerous tumors. And now the urgency of the nurses is making me think it's definitely cancer.

Well, she must've noticed how pale I got, because she hurriedly started explaining that pyogenic granuloma is a benign nodule of blood vessles - completely harmless, if a bit annoying and ugly, and a small risk of infection. I've never been so happy to hear that all I have to do is have minor surgery and cauterize the wound... LOL

TL;DR: Yeah, so, if your bump is not an irritation bump or a keloid, it could be granuloma WHICH IS NOT A CANCER (but probably needs to be removed by a doctor). Heh.

Edit: also see my reply to another user below, the term "irritation bump" as well as "granulomas" seem to me, to be a bit confusing and could mean different things.