Help!

[rated_r90]

Hi, kind of a long story but here I go...I'm a 21 y/o female currently suffering from health anxiety. I got chicken pox for the 1st time in February followed by a chest infection. The lymph nodes behind my ears were swollen for a little longer than I liked and I have been worrying about lymphoma ever since. I was also coughing and struggling to take a deep breath due to the chest infection.

My anxiety has made me lose sleep and my skin became really itchy (I have eczema which always gets worse during stressful times). My lymph nodes have now gone down, my cough is nearly gone, I can breath just fine again and my skin is much better but I still can't stop worrying! It is really getting me down now. I have my final exams at Uni this month and can't concentrate on them for my anxiety. I have also been worrying about a pain underneath my jaw. It hurts no matter what I do, just a quick stabbing pain for a few seconds, but I become especially anxious after drinking alcohol (which I rarely do), as I know pain in lymph nodes after consuming alcohol is a symptom of lymphoma. I probably wouldn't notice any pain if I wasn't thinking about it all the time, but every twinge feels magnified because of my anxiety. I am also tending to prod my jaw all the time, which I'm sure doesn't help the pain.

I regularly exercise and am feeling fine otherwise, but can't stop my anxiety.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

[robin321]

What makes you worry about lymphoma? I was worried about this a long time... I had a swollen lymph node in my neck (actually 3). One was 2.4cm. What else could it be right?
Well I also had a skin infection at the time... but I didn't put 2 and 2 together.

When I went to my ENT he told me (and he is the best cancer surgeon in the City I am from) that cancer never shinks, it always gets bigger. Never smaller.

Your nodes shrunk right? That shows they were doing what they were supposed to, fight infection (your chicken pox). That is another good sign, and cancer lymph nodes wouldn't react to infection...

The jaw thing could be a pulled muscle. It could also be anxiety. I know it is hard and frustrating to hear that. Cause the pain is real. But anxiety can cause real pain. And what happens is you hyper-focus on it, which makes you notice it more. I can do that to myself... if I focus on my foot I can feel numbness, a little cramp, whatever... move my focus to my neck, same thing...

Anyway, nothing in your post sounds like lymphoma. So try to relax and be happy. Good luck with your exams : )