Have I been sensitive to nickel all this time?

Factual Questions
1

I know a lot of people can only wear gold jewelry because they’re allergic (I guess really sensitive?) to metals, specifically nickel.

I don’t wear earrings very often. When I wear them, the skin around my holes often feels a little warm, gets a little swollen (not a lot, just a tiny bit) - I always figured it was just that the holes aren’t accustomed to being disturbed, and that maybe they’re stretching a bit. (I don’t have a problem getting earrings in, although once I think I went a year without earrings and that did require a bit of work.) There’s often a little bit of, you know, whatever stuff on the posts when I take them out.

I picked up a pair of little gold ball earrings recently because I’m trying to look a little more polished and accessorize more, and I think bigger earrings sometimes look a little odd on me now that I’ve cut my hair so short. So I put them in and completely forgot about them for three days (I rarely wear studs, so they felt like there was nothing there) until I remembered them this morning in the shower. Nothing on the posts, my earlobes feel like I haven’t been wearing earrings, etc.

The balls have gold posts. I don’t wear much gold and have no other gold earrings.

So, have I just been sensitive to the metals all this time? Could it be just that they were so small and light and low-profile (not that I wear huge honking earrings, though, and I’ve certainly worn non-dangling earrings before and felt the swelling and heat)?

2

It’s possible.

It could be worse, though. My wife is sensitive to nickle. Way sensitive to nickle. She can’t wear a watch because even the most expensive watches have steel backs on them which contain too much nickle. (Actually she can wear some of those really cheap $2 plastic watches because they have no metal parts that touch her wrist at all, but they’re just too ugly to suit her.) When she wears denim slacks she has to put tape over the inner side of that little clasp/button thingie that you fasten to keep them on or she gets blisters on her tummy. When I buy her gold jewelry it has to be at least 14 carat yellow gold or 18 carat white gold (“white” gold contains more nickel than yellow gold). Earrings flat-out have to be 14 carat gold or better.