Anyone ever deal with swollen lymph nodes?

that's the one I had! I only stopped dry heaving by cramming my nose in the soap dish.

ripe corpse in shit vinaigrette? you kind of have to smell it for yourself. it's really strong.

I had most of the left side of my face smashed in with a baseball bat when I was in highschool and even after reconstructive surgery (no plastic surgery or anything, just making sure things went back together) my sinuses on the left half of my face are all messed up. You can only tell this with an x-ray, but it has a interesting effect on my body:

My lymph gland in my left armpit swells up and hurts like a sonofabitch once in awhile. You can't actually see that it's swollen or anything, it just feels like a hard lump (almost as if there were a golf ball or something about 1/2 inch deep). My doctor said that it's a normal side effect because lymphocytes couldn't move as freely through my body and thus collected in the armpit. At any rate, it's never been a big deal and it can actually be a nice warning system and let me know I'm getting sick well before I feel any symptoms. Then I jack myself up on Echinacea, goldenseal, green tea and that kind of stuff and don't smoke or drink for a couple days and I'm fine.

On the other hand, if I really tie on and drink myself silly, my armpit will hurt like a bastard for a day or two.

[Edited on Jan 12, 2005 by Samebeat]

This is quite possibly the grossest thing I've ever read on these boards. Hope neither of you have to deal with that again.

Ok you're starting to gross and freak me out a bit now... haha.

just trying to help you feel better about your decision not to jam a needle into it.

A while back I had a boil in my armpit grow to the size of a golfball. It got so bad I went to the doctor (which I never do), and he was as repulsed as everyone else I had shown it to.

The MD gave me an antibiotic, as I continued with the warm compresses to bring the growth to life. It eventually exploded in a happy mixture of blood and puss.

I continue to live with a happily innocuous left armpit.

Good luck.

We're comparing apples and oranges here. Boils and glands are two totally different things. A swollen lymph gland isn't ever going to burst or create vomitous smells. It's just your body's way of telling you that it's got something inside it that it isn't happy about. Like I said above, drinkers and heavy smokers are likely candidates to be feeling that dull pain.

So what happened to you at the doctor today?

yeah i was wondering if he was going to come back and tell us what happened, i hope he went to the doctor..

If it is in fact your lymph gland thats swollen, you need to be put on a course of wide spectrum antibiotics..pronto.

Ok here's the straight dope... or a dope giving it to you straight.. one of those two.

The earliest I could get in was two weeks from now. My deductible is $300 per year on my health insurance, $0 of which I've put in so far so the tests and whatnot would undoubtedly equal at least $300. I can't really spare $300 right now and figured it'd be gone in 2 weeks anyway since it's already going away now so I gave up on making an appointment and am letting it slide...

The pain went away. The size went down. The more people I talked to, the more told me it happens to them or their children every once in a while and has never resulted in anything. For a couple nights there, I was feeling feverish and run down at night and would get a bit of a stuffy nose. That went away and the swelling is going down now as well. I'll be fine.. probably just some random floating illness.

Thanks for the concern, all.