Sons Neck and Around Ear Are Swollen+ Headache

Hi T.!

Couple things....You know your son. It doesn't sound like he's making up the pain so.... yes, either ride the Dr's butt or,better yet, find a new dr.

You say he was given an antibiotic - that seems to indicate that the Dr. felt he had some type of infection. A cheap way to get some free advise is to visit a local, trusted Pharmacist and see if this is something that makes sense to them, as far as the medication that was administered for this condition or any other advise that they can give you to treat the pain/reduce the swelling. You should have a local Walgreen's that is open later, near your home. Doesn't sound like he's had any fevers, which is good, and tiredness can be a sign of infection or he can be exhausted from being in pain or from being on pain-killers.

Has he had any recent bloodwork done? Are they associating the headaches with this "growth" ? The concern with a benign tumor is that it still can grow and press against vital areas of the body and cause pain and compression of which your son may be experiencing. I would ask questions about the "compression" part....what exactly is being compressed? size of the mass or cyst? Will it need to be drained or removed since it is not going away?

Again...you know your son. It sounds like he is really in pain over this and it's concerning that there hasn't been a reduction in size or pain intensity. As far as treating it... the hot compresses and hot showers can't hurt. Personally, if I didn't see ANY change by tomorrow, I would be back on the phone, asking these questions to my dr. possibly getting bloodwork done... travelling/iincreasing pain is concerning.

Best of luck to you and your son.

The doctor should not be giving you the brush off because he does not have insurance. Get on the Drs. butt.

Does your son have a regular job that just does not give insurance of is he is school? If he is in school full time he should be able to get on his Dad's insurance even though you are not married to him. Or has your son checked out with the state in possible getting some help.
Have a dear friend who's daughter did not have insurance and had to have emergency surgery. The hosp. help he get some temp. help $$ wise. You son could also check into some of the free clinics. I know there is one in most counties.
But if you son is hurting, get on the Dr. butt.

I would try one of those all night emergency care places. There are so many things that it could be. My daughter was complaining her neck hurt once and the emergency room doctor said it was an ear infection even though I kept telling him this was not how she actted with an ear infection. It ended up being viral meningitis.You know your son.

Because of his medical history, Iwould push, better saffe than sorry for sure. Maybe try Cook County Hospital. it takes al day, but it's free, and the have great doctor's there. The other thing I was going to mention was this...I had a really weird bug a few weeks back. Started a couple of days before Thanksgiving with a headache, stiff neck, and swollen lmph nodes in my jaws and pits. I am very infection prone due to meds. and medical issues. Anyhow, I have to really watch it. Well, I'll tell you what, it realy hurt a lot, and I can only take tylenol for over the counter pain releif. It remained this way for about ten days, and I thought okay, I hav eto get to the doctor, because this must be some kind of infection (no cold symptoms), well no ssoner did I schedule the appointment, the symptoms errupted into one heck of an awful cold. I lost my voice for five days, constant runny nose, still coughing a little bit, but the swollen nodes went away. Could be something like that too. Get some bloodwork done, then go from there. I hope he feels better soon :)

My son had almost same symt. with the swollen lymph nodes and after a million trips to the doc and docs gave antiboitics and thought it might have been reoccurring strep throat then fevers started and then he also had swelling of his fingertips and toes after about 2weeks of that we took him to another doc she ran chest xrays all clear drew blood for basic test nothing showed and she though he was fine lik all the rest. But she was puzzled why he kept having these symptoms and later that night after sending us home she called us and told us to take him to the hospital immed. that she had called up a collegue and they both think it was something called Kawaski's and thats what it was we spent a 5 days in the hospital getting treatment.and it all started with swollen lymph nodes