Bump

About 10 days ago, I noticed a bump on the back of my head. I dont remember hitting my head on anything. It was on the left side about an inch up from my hair line. The bump started getting bigger and it was really sore to the touch. I thought about going to the doctor here and then realized that they would probably just tell me to drink more water. ha ha. Anyway, I decided to do some research on my own. It’s amazing what you can find on google. So I actually typed in “bump on the back of head.” Would you believe I found a forum with a guy that has the same symptoms as me. Crazy huh? Anyway, a physician had replied to his post and indicated that we have lymph nodes in our head. Huh? Who would have thought. The doc said to have the lymph nodes examined and compare to other lymph nodes… neck, arm pits, groin, etc. He said you likely have an infection and its causing the lymph nodes to swell. So the next day I decided to go to the doctor on my island and tell him how much I knew about occipital lymph nodes. It was really kind of funny. I told him, “I have a swollen occipital lymph node. I have compared them to the lymph nodes in my neck and under my arm. The ones in my neck are swollen too. I think I have an infection and need you to prescribe an antibiotic.” You should have seen the look he gave me. He said, “Ok” and wrote me a prescription. Its now been 4 days on the antibiotic and the swelling has decreased but is not totally gone. I’ll keep poppin’ the horse pills and go back to see the doc tomorrow. If you are a doctor and you are reading this and you are worried that I might not have been properly diagnosed by the internet, feel free to offer some advise. I’m not too proud to admit I am wrong (sometimes) especially when it comes to strange bumps showing up on my head.

Another funny story… We had some friend over on New Year’s Day for hamburgers on our terrace. Our terrace is the roof of our house. Its really nice in the evenings. We bought huge chunks of meat from a store and ground our own beef and made hamburger patties. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, I bought a small grill and needed a table to put the grill on. I asked if I could borrow the house owners table from his terrace next to me. I had Braden fetch a board to place the grill on so that it wouldn’t leave a burn mark on the hard plastic table. We had a great time, the burgers where great. There was an Australian family, an American family and two local families. The locals had never had hamburgers before. They liked it. Ok, well after the BBQ was over and i was cleaning up, I was pointing out to Braden the burned marks on the board to show him how I thought ahead and was careful not to mark up the table. So I picked up the board with the grill still on it to move it to the ground so I could return the owners table. The heat from the grill had been so intense that it melted the table under the board. We were all amazed and wondered what to do. I had to model humility and call the owner and tell him what happened. He said, “No problem, just buy me a new one.” I guess a couple of lessons for all of us. (1) I’m not as smart as I think I am. (2) Don’t borrow stuff without asking… I almost just borrowed the table without asking…. glad I asked. (3) Admit your mistakes, ask for forgiveness and make things right. At least now I have a table on my terrace….. too bad it has a big burned hole in the middle of it.