Ok, first and foremost, here's a picture of what I'm talking about so you have an idea: http://i.imgur.com/hvoxtfN.jpg?1
(Admittedly, that picture makes it look much worse than it actually is, because (a) I took it with my iPhone which makes it look blurry, and (b) my freckle makes it look spotted.)
About maybe a month ago, a hard little pimple appeared behind my left earlobe, on the flap of skin that connect it to my head. I left it alone, thinking that it would go away. Well, I must have irritated it beyond all reason, because it is now a fairly big-ish lump. It's a little squishy. It's a little flaky because I've been putting tea tree oil on it, which made it dry and a little red. Also I touch it ALL THE TIME, which I'm sure is doing it no good. I went to Prime Care and the general practitioner kind of had no idea what she was doing. I told her I thought the pimple must have turned into a cyst, but she said it might be a lymph node. At this point I began to have a panic attack, because I'm a gay man and anything that might be remotely related to HIV scares the crap out of me. I always use a condom when I have sex, and I have literally been in perfect health since before and after the pimple developed. I have experienced NO fevers, NO headaches, NOR lack of appetite. No flu-like symptoms, either. Just this ridiculous lump behind my ear. I have no other lumps or anything like it on any other part of my body. Can someone PLEASE tell me what this is? It's driving me nuts, and I'm so tempted to just prick it with a needle to deflate it.