story

I had a lump show up on my neck overnite in the month of March 2002 and everything in my life was about to change (although I didn't realize it at the time). I went to see my primary care doctor and he diagnosed paratitis (mumps) and gave me a week of antibiotics. This was a relief to me because the lump felt hard and rubbery to me which I had read was an indication of cancer. After two weeks however the lump wasn't getting any better and I was getting scared, but I decided to refill the prescription and not seek another opinion (fearing the worst I guess). It was that next weekend when the lump went to the size of a baseball and became extremely painful. I went to the emergency room and it was so packed I waited for hours before seeing a doctor who gave me tylenol and sent me home with the name of a ENT doctor. My wife brought me to the ENT the next day and he put me in the hospital with a diagnosis of an abscess. The head of infectious deseases and the ENT worked on me with st...