enlarged posterior cervical lymph nodes and boney growth on occipital bone

[smokey3]

My 7 year old daughter discovered a hard bump on the back of her head (occipital bone I think) and after a week we went to the doctor with this bump still there and a line of posterior cervical nodes that are enlarged.  She is average to petite in size and you can see the node enlargement with your naked eye.  The node closest to the boney feeling bump is smaller than the nodes slightly lower than it.  She's been on Augmentin for a week and the nodes and the bump are still there with no change in size.  The nodes are not tender at all to palpate.  She has not recently been sick.  I have pulled a few dog ticks off of her scalp in the past few weeks but they couldn't have been there too long since we live in the country and we check heads all the time for ticks at this time of year. She has also been recommended for a tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy due to a number of strep and sinus infections.  However from what I understand this would not effect the posterior cervical nodes.  Otherwise she appears healthy.  She is going for a CT scan tomorrow.  The nodes are maybe 1.5cm in size.  Does this sound as worrisome as I keep reading it could be?

[PaulMD]

The posterior cervical lymph nodes would usually react to infections involving the scalp and soft tissues, and not so much reacting from tonsil problems.  Scalp infection can come from parasitic infections such as lice or ticks or from superficial infections such as dandruff.  Other diseases can include tuberculosis (if endemic) which is a slow infection that can involve lymph nodes.  If the cause is still not ascertained after the CT scan, then a biopsy procedure may be in order.

Regards.