Hi,
I'm a 24 year old, fit and normally healthy male. Three weeks ago I began to feel very ill in work, and the following day went to the docs, who told me i had tonsillitis. I had the usual symptoms of bad headache, neckache, swollen white covered tonsils. i took antibiotics for this, and the swelling of the tonsils generally cleared up.
However, for the past couple of weeks, I still haven't felt right. Firstly, my right tonsil returned to being very sore and swollen. This has only just (seemingly) begun to subside this weekend., however, my throat still looks quite red, and is particularly sore when I wake up.
My real concern is my neck, which is still in agony on one side, the same one the swollen tonsil was on, although over the past few days has started to feel like it's in both. There is one particular swelling just behind and between my ear lobe/jaw which is causing my a lot of worry. The pain seems to travel down into my neck muscles and the back of my neck, more recently my shoulders, and seems to radiate around on both sides. my neck doesn't look swollen particularly when i look in the mirror, but it feels it. The swollen lump is making me have to 'pop' my right ear all the time, and it now feels like there is pressure in my ear (a bit like when water is trapped in your ear).
I've been to a number of doctors/nurses, all of whom don't seem overly concerned. The nurse I saw yesterday told me that my neck glands aren't up, and that the lump I was referring to was part of my jaw muscles... but if that was the case, why would one side be bigger than the other, sore, and seemingly causing pain mostly down the same side of my neck? It is more pronounced if i open my mouth, it's easily visible then. she also checked my ears, she said they were fine, and that sometimes these ilnesses can take a while to leave your system.
I've had a blood test for HIV, which came back negative, but I'm worried it could be something like Leukemia now. Does anyone think my symptoms sound like leukemia? Can tonsillitis be a forerunner to leukemia? I also thought it might be mono. i did have a mild fever/chills and felt quite ill when i had the swollen/white covered tonsils, but this has passed now (about 4 or 5 days into it I felt quite a lot better), i generally don't feel sick or nautious, but my neck is painful and causing me a lot of concern.. it is over three weeks since i first had any illness symptoms, so i'm starting to worry, I've never had anything that's lated this long, ever. surely if it was glandular fever (mono) it would have made me bedridden?
Also, if it is mono, when should i expect this to start going away?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.