Found a lump and now in a panic :(

Hi,

I have just got over a cancer HA which gobbled me up for weeks :( I have managed to get things back under control and now I have gone back into a full scale panic. I have just noticed a hard/bony pea-sized lump/bump on my ankle bone which is visible to the eye (defined enough to be seen on a photo). I made the mistake of googling it (why?????) and of course it comes up with the big C. So now I am back to freaking out. I currently can't stop my heart from racing, I feel sick and sweating and I feel like HA is closing in. Having an obvious lump is a worry but my mum said that perhaps I bumped it and maybe give it a couple of days. I have not noticed it before and I did shave my legs this morning, usually I am rubbing my legs and ankles etc (though not looking for lumps lol).

It does not hurt, it is not red and I have no pain or other symptoms. Dr Google does say other things about lumps like cysts, spurs etc and did say that most tumours on bone are benign anyway and malignancy is rare but I am freaking out. My parents have both recently been diagnosed with different types of cancer and it is making me more aware of everything. :(

Advice please? Should I wait and see for a couple of days? Has anyone ever had anything like this that can share their experiences?

I have two young children and I have found that since having them my health anxiety and anxiety in general seems to be through the roof! :(

Thanks in advance

---------- Post added at 23:00 ---------- Previous post was at 21:50 ----------

Still googling away (argh I know!) and am starting to calm down by looking at statistics and see that in my age/sex there are less than 10 cases in the U.K. a year. Hope that my HA is all it is and the bump is normal (don't know how long it has been there....could be yesterday or longer?!)

I stopped taking my citalopram (on them for 2 months so far) about 3 weeks ago and I felt ok, in fact better as the meds made me so sleepy, and after a few terrible nightmares I felt calm. I really felt worse on them than off but the HA was gone (however it was recurring before I took meds and had been fine for 3 yrs).

I don't know if this is any help, but I have something similar, which I noticed about a month after an injury. It wasn't quite on the ankle, more in the skin to the side of the ankle bone. At first it was hard and colourless, and I just played with it, then I started to squeeze and poke and prod, and it began to get what looked like a blood clot/blood blister on top. So I instantly panicked and went to the doctor, who said it was scar tissue and a blood clot after injury and blood vessel damage from squeezing, poking and prodding (I had hit that area with a mattock then re-injured it twice afterwards...though the skin was never broken, I had a huge bruise there which took ages to go away). The doctor also said that this area has a huge amount of very sensitive tendons, nerves, blood vessels etc, and lumps and bumps there are very common.

So I put a bandaid on it for two weeks, then when it hadn't changed, went to another doctor (the actual lump is a bit smaller...I think...but the purply blood blister thing hasn't changed). This doctor told me exactly the same thing as the first doctor, and said leave it alone, as the poking and prodding is making it worse and that it could take up to SIX MONTHS to go away. I'm still freaking out about various types of C, though I have read (Googled BAD!) that these are extremely rare in this area, and that as the lump hasn't grown, or spread, then it is unlikely. I am now trying to ignore it (and mine is actually sometimes painful, especially when I prod it) and not check it every 5 minutes.

I have of course Google diagnosed myself with every type of horrible C possible, including an exceptionally rare and aggressive type of skin C which mostly only strikes old pale skinned men with immune disorders on the upper part of the body (none of which apply to me)...and of course the worst type of MM, even though the lump is *under* the skin, not on top. I reassure myself that if the doctors were worried, they would check it out further, it is extremely unlikely that it is something bad, and if it is, then I will be able to deal with it and that given that I injured myself in that very spot, it is highly likely that the most likely explanation is the correct one.

I don't know if this helps you at all, just to let you know that doctors say that lumps and bumps on the ankle are very common and mostly the result of injury or benign cysts.

I don't know if this will help you, but finally after stressing out about my own lump on my ankle, I thought it looked like it had fluid in it so I got a needle, sterilised it and stuck it into it. Out came a heap of blood and pus and a SPLINTER!!! Now I had been stressing out about this lump for literally THREE MONTHS, and had seen two doctors. I had diagnosed myself with every type of cancer possible and seems I had an infected splinter. Hope this helps some of you, to quote an old medical saying, 'look for horses not zebras' (means look for the most likely explanation not the most unlikely)

hugs. I swear i'm feeling the same fears about leaving our kids behind.

maybe stop by the GP for a quick look to put your mind at rest? i had a check up on a spot on my toe earlier today. Was thinking of melanoma. This forum greatly helped me calm down (meaning i didn't believe the doctor diagnosis because she told me that i need to come back if it changes).