A pain in my neck...

My neck and upper back is still a little tight from the car wreck we were involved in almost a week ago.

But this is about a different kind of pain in the neck...

The wreck happened on Saturday evening, and Sunday night we were sitting on the couch and I lifted my hand to rub my neck where it was the most sore and I realized I had a couple of knots on the right side of my neck. At first, there were just two, and they were only tender to the touch. As Monday came, I realized there were two more knots in my neck, right next to each other, and a little lower than the other two. So I now had four knots. And they were starting to ache a little bit, no longer just tender to the touch...

Tuesday comes. I feel yet another knot in my neck...but this one is farther down, kinda where my neck attaches to my shoulder. Wednesday comes, and they are starting to not just hurt when I touched them, but were achy almost constantly, and sometimes throbbing.

So, of course, I do the thing that any intelligent human being would do, and I call the doctor to schedule a follow up appointment on Thursday. Since I am a graduate student, I have a medical insurance policy through the University. In order for the insurance to cover all of the expenses, they make you go to the University Health Center on campus...otherwise you have to pay out of pocket, and depending on which doctor you go to (in/out of network), you could end up having to foot the majority of the bill, even if you have insurance. 

So of course, I call the University Health Center. I explain over the phone that I had been in a rear-end collision, was checked out in the ER right after the accident, have some neck pain and stiffness, and am now starting to notice some lumps in my neck. They schedule me an appointment for yesterday afternoon, and I explain, first to a nurse, then to a doctor, exactly what I had stated over the phone. She asks me a few questions that seem to me to have absolutely no relevance to my neck injury, but I play along anyways.

Then she proceeds to tell me that she thinks the knots in my neck are lymphnodes, and suggests that I probably have mono...

I honestly wanted to laugh...but I kept my composure...and tried to refrain from telling her I thought she was crazy (although I must say, usually my face says exactly what I think...so I'm sure that was a worthless effort...).

The nurse takes me back to the lab area to have blood drawn to test me for a virus...

10-15 minutes later, they call me back and the doctor informs me that my blood counts are perfectly normal, and I do NOT have mono (shocker, I know...). She then tells me she thinks my neck is fine, and doesn't know what's wrong with me, but if I would like for her to do a chest x-ray to ensure that I don't have anything in my chest, she will. I respectfully decline, at this point, completely annoyed that I have just wasted an hour of my life to find out that I don't have a virus...because I was sooo concerned about that to being with? 

All that to say...I have lost all faith in the University Health Center. The five knots are still there...and they are pretty achy most the time, and throb occasionally.  I am pretty sure I have a torn muscle or tissue of some kind, and I'm hoping it doesn't get any worse. If it does, I'm thinking I would rather pay for some real medical advice than go back to the Health Center. 

Please excuse my rant. I'll stop now.

Happy Friday everyone!