I had pulled neck muscle and was told to massage it. i think i ended up irritating the neck lymph nodes . what can i do to ease the lymph nodes. it is dangerous to do that? not massaging the neck anymore; obviously a bad ides. thank you?

Often when a muscle is strained or injured it will go into spasm. When the muscle is massaged it can irritate the muscle and cause more pain and more spasm. When the muscle is stretched, the normal mechanism of the muscle is to relax. This can be done with physical therapy and with some physician assisted manipulative therapy. Also, ice to the area can help reduce the spasm and pain quickly.