Absolutely freaked out (re: lymphoma possibility)

Lymphoma. Can't get the damn word out of my head. Didn't have an encouraging visit to the doctor's today.

I've had a fairly small (pea-sized), hard bump on the back of my head for two months. I've got a newer one behind my left ear now. I've had ear-clogging problems on and off the last couple months as well, because of fluid.

I saw a doctor today in response to recent headaches, and he checked the nodes for me. He took some blood, just to see if I'm fighting an acute infection of some kind. Having been two months since they appeared, he told me that if everything comes back normal, we should biopsy the node.

The word biopsy just set me off. I just wanted to hear the George Costanza "Cancer? Get outta here!" line, but the fact that I'm even AT the stage where a biopsy is considered has me absolutely drained. I could feel the colour drain from my face. I am just beside myself now.

I know a biopsy is just a test, and that's not a bad thing. But the idea that at 23 I could have some kind of lymphoma in my head has just shattered me. I've been watching my father die of brain cancer for a year now. It seems like "cancer" is all I hear, day in and day out, and all I worry about. I should NOT be living like this at my age. Or at any age, period.

Maybe talking about it here helps me rationalize, I don't know. I've been battling hypochondria for a year now, and I'm just tired of it. Lymphoma, lymphoma, lymphoma. It's all I'm scared of. This is NOT normal, and that's what frustrates me the most. I didn't grow up a basket-case, but boy have I become one.