Sexually Transmitted Diseases Forum

I'm sorry for the long (and probably confusing) description...

A few months ago I noticed that I had a small lump on the left side of my neck (under the skin) almost directly below my earlobe and jaw bone. It was fairly small, but was a bit hard and hurt a bit when I applied pressure. I was really worried at first, but a few people told me not to worry about it and I soon forgot about it.

But almost a week ago I noticed it again, and it was bigger and hard and hurt when I applied pressure to it. Around that same time I was getting really bad headaches that just kept coming back (and I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary that would cause a headache), and the back of my neck started to feel sore. The day after I noticed that there was a weird bump on top of it, almost like a pimple, and the skin all around it was really red. The whole area around it hurt a bit even when something gently brushed against it.

I looked up a bit of stuff on the internet, and I was thinking maybe it was just a spider bite (we have spiders in our basement where I live), but i've gotten spider bites before and they're not anything like this. So I looked up some more stuff and talked to a friend, and he said it might be herpes.

I looked up some information on herpes, and from what I understand you get a blister, and the area around it is red (also swollen nodes I think), and headaches and muscle aches.
And now for at least the last 48 hours, my neck has been really stiff and sore. And when I chew on anything (crackers, pork chop...Anything kinda tough or crunchy), or move my head around too much, make weird facial expressions, my neck hurts where the lump is. There's also been a bit of a dull pain in that area for the last two days too. And sometime within the last few days, it scabbed over, I didn't really notice when, it just seemed to be a scab all of a sudden.

Also, when I had a shower yesterday (about 12 hours ago from when I make this post), I was lightly scratching my neck where the bump was (it was itchy, and I didn't even notice I was scratching there) I accidently scratched the scab off. Afterwards it almost seemed like I felt better. My neck didn't really feel sore, (including the back of it), I didn't have a headache and the area around the bump didn't seem so sensitive (i think I was just imagining that I felt better). But now there's like a little hole where the scab was, sorta like you can stick the tip of a q-tip in and not be able to see the very end of it), and it looks white and almost like puss.

If this helps any, I had sex for the first time at the end of june, and shortly after that was when I noticed the bump on my neck. And I think I had a cold sore around that time as well, and i've never had a cold sore before (and i've heard if you have a cold sore that you have herpes, i'm not sure if it's true or not). I haven't had sex or even done anything remotely sexual with anyone since june...So...I don't know.

I am scheduling a doctors appointment on monday (i would go into out patients, but I know a lot of people in the area, and I feel embarassed to even leave my own bedroom) and hopefully i'll be able to get in soon so I know what this really is.

Any opinons, suggestions etc would be very appreciated. Thank you.

Is This Herpes?