Pyat don't feel so good.

[pyat]

So, after a very broken sleep, I arose to a matched pair of very swollen (and tender) lymph nodes on the back of my neck. For those who were visiting last night, I am still hiccuping, 9 or 10 times a minute. Each time I do, my neck tenses up, and gives the swollen nodes a swift kick.


Of course, it could be worse. I could be wggthegnoll, in hospital with appendicitis, and apparently the Four Horsemen are his housemates.

Comments

[redregon.livejournal.com]

hehehee, i'm loving his expression in this photo! :P

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking it's time to go to the ER hon. Not sure if hiccups are associated with anything serious, but the lymph nodes combined might mean something...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I went to see the on call at our clinic and got 500 mb of Cloxacillin. And then my sister gave me some muscle relaxant/pain killers.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Where exactly in the back of your neck? Edge of your neck along your jugular? Back of your ears? Base of your skull? Or?


::B::

P.S. Get well soon!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Base of the skull on either side - the on call doctor suggested it was infected hair folicles. I'm wondering if it's cellulitis, which I've had periodically. In any case,the precription would be the same, no?

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Sounds like occipital lymph nodes, and the swelling is most likely 2' to either a scalp injury (ie insect bite, scratching too much) or scalp infection (dermatitis, folliculitis, etc.).

[Sometimes the drainage at the back of the neck is a little funny for some people and it may also reflect a nearby ear or throat infection; less likely if you have no ear or throat symptoms or pain.]

If a bacterial infection, the clox should hit it; if a fungal (i.e. ringworm) it won't do much good. If things don't calm down in a week, see your usual Family MD because this may be something that needs a both a trained eye and a scraping to diagnose.

::B::

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

okay, I think I can spot "Famine" and "War" on either end, but of the two in the middle, which is "Pestilence" and which is "Death"?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Death is on the left, in black. Her costume is based on Neil Gaiman's comics. :)

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

I think "Death" looks entirely too happy. And why does she have hearts and butterflies around her head?

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

It's a Neil Gaiman thing. Death is very perky in his writings.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Well, if you've gotta have an anthropomorphic personification of death, it might as well be a perky goth girl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(DC_Comics)), right?

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

Piet, I posted this comment to velvetpage, but also am copying it to you, as you may find it useful:

I've found a sure way to stop (myself) from hiccuping. But it's hard to describe. It's related to Chi'Kung breathing that I learned in Tai Chi, a kind of diaphragmatic breathing. Afterall, hiccups are really involuntary spasms of the diaphragm. It took a couple of years to learn, but there's a quicker way to do diaphragmatic breathing (and so gain control of your diaphragm instead of it spasming).

Sit in a chair, and place your hands on your back at the base of your ribcage. Then bend over at your waist (still sitting). Try breathing in and out. In this position, your rib cage is more or less immobilized and you will feel your hands move out and in as you breath via your diaphragm instead. Focus on gaining voluntary control over this breathing.

Also good for panic symptoms. I used to teach it to my patients.

Farewell, young grasshopper!

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend this as a way to stop both hiccuping and panic! I've used it many times in the past to stop hiccups in less than a minute, and it's something I've needed to do two or three times in the last 24 hours to lessen panic attacks.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! They seem to have stopped, finally, except for an occasional stray peristaltic paroxysm. I did not get a chance to try this method - I didn't read your comment till this morning, and they finally stopped around 10:30 last night. But I'll save the secret wisdom for the next assault.