my roommate has a nasty ear piercing infection...?

Last week she got one of those "hollow metal rod" piercings in her upper ear. She is treating it, but her upper ear has gotten so swollen that it looks like one of Ron Howard's ears. She said that she feels sick. When she walked into the room today I noticed that her skin looked kinda yellowish, almost like jaundice. She called the piercer and he said to buy some antibacterial hand soap, which she did, but he also told her not to remove the piercing. But I think that she should remove the piercing so that she can introduce antibiotics into the wound. I also checked her ear to look for red lines, and I found none, but it's her skin color that's worrying us. Our other roommate has offered many times to drive her to the hospital, but our roommate just feels so sick that she'd rather go to sleep. What should we do? I'm also not sure if she has a fever, cuz we don't have a thermometer, and the nurse's office is closed.