Hello, my son is 3 years old, and a couple months ago we found an engorged tick on his head. It was believed to be a wood tick. Upon trying to remove it, the head stayed in his skin. We brought him into our local walk-in clinic to have it removed. The Nurse Practitioner that saw him did not remove the tick head, saying that removing it would cause greater risk for infection than leaving it. After a couple days the site was obviously infected. Swollen, red and weeping, but not abscessed. He was running a mild fever and the lymph node on the back of his head nearest the bite was swollen. He was treated for the infection with antibiotics. The antibiotics did their job with the bacterial infection but he has had many peculiar symptoms since. Most notably: more lymph nodes becoming enlarged and tender (on the back of his head on the other side and under his armpits); various fevers that have come and went; and at one time a bright red stripe on his skin that started out as a ring encompassing his head (at about lymph node level), and over the course of several days, moved like a wave down his body. This red stripe was accompanied by one of the fevers. We’ve had him in several times to see pediatricians and blood tests. Aside from the initial infection, his white blood cell count have been normal, his platelet counts have been normal, and he has tested negative for Lyme’s disease. So, what is plaguing him is, I’m assuming, not bacteria. Now, yesterday, he woke up with a swollen knee that obviously caused him pain and today he woke and could not bear weight on it. No fall that he has taken recently stuck out at me as sever enough to cause injury. X-rays show no fractures. I have no idea if it is at all related, but to me it was suspicious because 3 year olds are so limber that it would take a pretty significant injury to cause such severe swelling and pain. One that Mom and Dad would surly have noticed (and heard). Regardless of whether or not they are related, the question still stands, what is causing the persistent swollen, painful lymph nodes and all the other strange ailments my son has been experiencing? A virus or parasite? Autoimmune disease? And what tests should we be doing to find out? Thanks. ~Kyle