Infected Lymph Nodes

So with in a matter of a week my lymph nodes in the neck went from non-existent to over 3 inches long and hard as a rock. I've seen 4 doctors in 6 days and spent all of today at the ER. I went to a specialist this morning and he called the ER at Chesapeake to get me in. He talked to the doctor there and told him everything he wanted.

I didn't know I'd be poked all day and spend a day there.

In this picture - you can really see the swelling but the nodes are so swollen they've started bruising my skin around my neck. It reaches up behind my ear, over the jaw, and across my collar bone.


I have given more blood than ever the past few days. We also had to hook me up to the contrast on the CT scan. They were trying to figure out if it was salivary glands or lymph nodes. And if there was an abscess in any of them. If there was an abscess then I was being admitted and going in to surgery immediately. Let's just say it was a long day waiting........


Now I've seen lots of blood taken with miss Haven...but I've never seen blood go in to these glass jars. The doctors took every test possible to figure out what was wrong with me. These are special tests that will give the doctor information on the type of infection and how it started.

After about 6 hours and a day of needles I'm informed that I officially have 3 lymph nodes that are infected and one filled with fluid. BUT no abscess!!! YEAH!!! Still on a search to find out what is wrong with me and what caused the infection I had to get one more poke. So I got a TB test and will get that read on Friday. All other test results will be in on Friday. I can't even remember how many doctor appts I have next week with all this crap.

I am exhausted and plan to be in bed by 8pm. Thanks everyone for the well wishes.....I'm waiting for my antibiotics to arrive and then I'm knocking myself out!