I have been having an ongoing problem, which seems to be quite an anomaly because no one seems to be able to pin point the problem. About a year ago I was diagnosed with having pneumonia. I continued to have a fever that stayed on the low-grade side (99.4-101) and it went on for over 3 months. They did lab work and could not find anything. Then, my weil-felix came back positive. They sent me to an infectious disease doctor, which was of no help because I could not afford the huge lists of tests. I eventually gave up and things seemed to get better after taking doxycycline (i think that is how it is spelled). A few months ago I started having some of the old symptoms. Mostly it was a general sick feeling. (extreme fatigue, feverish, coughing up green/gray sputum, etc.) I thought maybe I was just coming down with something. I had a swollen lymph node as well. At first it was a bit tender at first (then it pretty much stopped hurting), but I decided it was no big deal--I" figured it would go away after a few weeks) The lump did not go away and it has been there for a month in a half and the symptoms have not gone away. I have had intermittent fevers, really bad fatigue, and general sick feeling. I went to the doctors and they prescribed Bactrim, which did not work at all. The lump continued to enlarge and became 1x2 inches and felt semi-fixed--really deep. It is in the axilla area. I went back to the doctor and she then put a needle into it and a thick, non-putrid, butter milk colored pus came out. It was quite a bit.(sorry to be graphic) The skin over it is not red or inflamed. She wanted to run a culture on it and she did blood work and a chest x-ray. The culture was inconclusive and nothing grew. I asked if she did a gram stain, but she said they did not. The blood work came back normal except for a low Mchc count. She said that the antibiotics could have done something to stop the growth of the sample. I told her about the Weil-felix test I had previously and she prescribed doxycycline to see if that would work on shrinking the abscess.(it is still huge, but painless) If it does not, then she will refer me to the hospital for them to check it out and see if it needs to be operated on. In the mean time, I feel horrible and the fever and fatigue is making it hard to go to school and work. Notably, my brother's friend (who visits almost every day) is having a lot of the same symptoms (including a swollen lymph nodes in the axillary and groin regions). What is your opinion of these issues? I have always had weird, unexplained autoimmune type illnesses--so, i am extremely tired and frustrated! I appreciate your input!

Jennifer