Hi everyone!
First time posting, after I have finally accepted that I have health anxiety and I'm not alone.
Seems my health anxiety triggered not long after loosing my dad to melanoma a few years ago.. then I'm pretty sure every single symptom of have is cancer to the point I can not even bring myself to go and see a dr about anything health related! My main sicknesses are cervical cancer, melanoma, multiple myeloma.. and now lymphoma. Which brings me to this post.
A few weeks back I ended up with some weird virus.. left tonsil was inflamed, left side of throat was sore and ended up with a tickle that induced days of coughing. Never gave it another thought after it went away until..
A week ago, my shirt collar was irritating my neck on mu left so I rubbed the irritated spot.. and what did I feel?? A lump! I have no idea how long it's been there. My stomach dropped, I instantly had a nervous bowl attack, heart raced and I felt dizzy... first thought, oh shit I have cancer.
So this lump, I would guess it's the size of my finger tip it's longer then it is wide, moves freely and kind of squishy (trying my hardest not to feel it right now to double check!).. which every thing I have goodled is a good sign and not a sign of metastasis, still doesn't convince me I don't have lymphoma. It seems to get bigger when I stretch my neck out. It's hard to feel when I lay down? But easy to feel when standing.
There isn't one on the other side that I can feel.. and I can't bring myself to see a dr.. I don't think I can face being told it's cancer. Being that I work in pathology I feel like I know too much when it comes to blood tests
I'm doing my hardest to not touch it.. it's coming up to 24 hours since last poke, and I think I have read every single lymph node post here on the forum..
How do I let this fear go? It's consuming me day and night.. why did I have to stumble across it? I didn't go looking for it! Will this node ever go away?? Do I have a valid logically reason to fear it's cancer?
I should probably add I'm 37 year old woman, don't smoke and don't drink, I avoid anything that increases my chance of cancer... including living it feels..
Help? And thanks