Retroauricular Lymph Nodes

Before I start, I'll just apologize in advance for the somewhat serious nature of this blog entry. Not usually my way of easing back into the blogging scene, but I'm hoping it'll help explain why I've been somewhat M.I.A. lately! Here goes. While sitting at my desk at work about 2 weeks ago, I noticed a large lump behind my left ear. I immediately freaked out and kept touching it thinking maybe it'd go away. (Yeah, because continually touching something is bound to make it go away, right?) Anyway, because I hate going to the doctor and will put it off until the last possible moment, I figured it was something I'd wait out for a little while in hopes that it'd just disappear. Well, over that 2-week period, the lump started to get bigger. In addition, another lump appeared. I was told by several people that it was probably just swollen lymph nodes. Maybe so, but I've never felt a lymph node like this. It is big, round, and hard. Doesn't sound like the makings for a good situation, especially because I absolutely hate anything and everything to do with lymph nodes. They are extremely high on my "Things That Gross Me Out" list. Not to mention, whenever mine smell up, my brain immediately goes to the worst-case scenario and thinks cancer. Damn you, Lurlene McDaniel books (particularly "Don't Die, My Love"), for planting that seed in my head at a very young age. So, because my mom kept pushing me (thanks, ma:), I finally decided to go into Urgent Care last week to figure out what's up. The nurse practitioner came in and seemed somewhat alarmed simply because she'd never seen anything like it. However, the doc came in and also examined the situation, and he seemed pretty unconcerned about what was happening. His official diagnosis? "Non-inflamed retroauricular lymph nodes." In English, please? Basically, everyone was right. It's swollen lymph nodes. Here's where I'm in idiot. In my excitement over his, "I don't think it's a cancerous tumor" statement, I didn't even ask what he thought was causing it. All he told me was that he wasn't too worried, but that in an effort to be safe, that I should go back to the doctor in 30 days if they haven't gone away. So far, one has gone down, and the other one (the original lump) is still large and in charge. They don't hurt as bad as they did last week, but I'm still not convinced that it's completely harmless. Here's hoping that by February 19, they are GONE so I don't have to go in again. It's been a rough couple weeks, so wish me luck and pray for my health! :)