Sunday, May 27, 2007

Strange Infection

Last Monday, I went to see my neighbourhood friendly doctor about a lump at the base of my skull, just reaching the top of neck. It was a hard yet tender lump. I self-diagnosed it as "Swollen Lymph Node". And it was! What a quack I am!

The area above the swollen lymph node was also extremely tender, and was painful to sleep on. The doctor prescribed AUGMEX (which was cheaper than Augmentin by one doller per tab) which made me woozy. The swell, which was caused by probably an infection to the ear, nose or throat, as diagnosed by the doctor, should go down in a week, or, the doctor threatened, I would need to see a specialist.

Strange enough, my ears, nose and throat felt fine. Nothing felt wrong. Hmmm.

Concerned friends offer advice and scares, which ranged from "it might be prelude to leukaemia" to " Is it a pimple? Have you tried squeezing it?" which really cracked me up. I think the swelling was not helped by my incessant checking, which consisted of non-stop pressing of the node to figure if it was still painful.

Anyway one week has passed and the swelling has subsided. Should I return to the doc to confirm it's really alright now? After all, I have become quite an expert at checking the node because I have pressed it continously for one week, heh heh.

2 comments:

fong said...

I think a swollen lymph node is not a disease, but a sign that your body is fighting infection. Your body produces more white blood cells (?) to kill the bacteria and the extra liquids gather at certain parts of the lymphatic system. That's what I remember from Sec. 4 bio anyway. So you could be fighting any kind of infection.

Sam said...

I think every pill should be named Augmex. Sounds like such a miracle drug.