ReissG
09-02-13, 13:24
I've mentioned this all before, but never in detail and all together, so please read it and please give best advice you can!
So I'm sat here worrying as usual about two things that I need your advice on.
One week ago I went to my partners mothers house with him and stayed for 5 days, in these 5 days my allergies started to play up. Snotty watery nose, watery eyes, lot's of phlegm draining to the back of my throat creating a lot mucus to build up. By the 4th day of our stay my right tonsil had got slightly red and swollen and started to get sore. It was now our final day and we went home. I got home and already my allergies had improved. The next day my sore throat had gone and the swelling in my tonsil left. I still had quite a lot of phlegm in my throat, but I thought nothing of it. Anyway being health anxious, last week I decided to check my tonsils as a regular routine thing and noticed the left tonsil was slightly swollen and had yellow/white stuff in the pits. I didn't do anything as (strangely) it didn't phase me.
Now cut to 3 days ago, I felt my neck and thought that a lymph node (I felt the same one last week and it was fine) had grown. So I went into this huge panic that the lymph node was growing and it was lymphoma and I'd be dead in a month. I managed to get an emergency appointment with my Dr that day, I saw him and he felt my entire neck and the lymph node and said everything feels perfectly fine and I can stop worrying.
When I got home I realised I forgot to tell him about my tonsil being swollen, so then I started panicking and thinking "oh god, what if the tonsil has lymphoma and it spread down to the lymph node I thought got bigger" and started panicking again. I rung my Dr the next day (so 2 days ago) and asked him for some anti biotics, I told him my tonsil is slightly swollen but I'm in no pain. He gave me the anti biotics and I started taking them that night.
That brings me to now. It's been 40 hours since I started the anti biotics and while my tonsil hasn't got bigger or anything, it hasn't gone down in size.
Here is my problem, I am 50/50 about the entire situation, so I need some seriously good advice from you all to get over this mess.
1. Do I put the swollen tonsil down to allergies? Or maybe down to my head making me think it's swollen when it's actually not? I don't know. Do I trust the Dr that my lymph node feels fine and that I can trust his promise that I'm okay. He is a lovely man and has never been wrong, but my anxiety sometimes makes me question his judgement.
or
2. Do I go with my own feelings of fear that there might be something else at work here? Do I trust the stories I've found on the web about people being told they're fine then finding out they have cancer and go be further tested? Do I trust my paranoia that the lymph node and tonsil have both grown and should I take the lymphoma thoughts into real consideration?
I have no other symptoms other then (what I believe) to be a slightly swollen tonsil and a lymph node I think has grown (the lymph node isn't swollen, I just think it's grown)
Please give brutal honesty, I don't care how nasty you are, please be dead serious. I was meant to be staying with a friend this week but I cannot go because once again, my health anxiety has put my entire life on hold.
Thank you for reading this essay lol I will really appreciate any feedback and advice.
So I'm sat here worrying as usual about two things that I need your advice on.
One week ago I went to my partners mothers house with him and stayed for 5 days, in these 5 days my allergies started to play up. Snotty watery nose, watery eyes, lot's of phlegm draining to the back of my throat creating a lot mucus to build up. By the 4th day of our stay my right tonsil had got slightly red and swollen and started to get sore. It was now our final day and we went home. I got home and already my allergies had improved. The next day my sore throat had gone and the swelling in my tonsil left. I still had quite a lot of phlegm in my throat, but I thought nothing of it. Anyway being health anxious, last week I decided to check my tonsils as a regular routine thing and noticed the left tonsil was slightly swollen and had yellow/white stuff in the pits. I didn't do anything as (strangely) it didn't phase me.
Now cut to 3 days ago, I felt my neck and thought that a lymph node (I felt the same one last week and it was fine) had grown. So I went into this huge panic that the lymph node was growing and it was lymphoma and I'd be dead in a month. I managed to get an emergency appointment with my Dr that day, I saw him and he felt my entire neck and the lymph node and said everything feels perfectly fine and I can stop worrying.
When I got home I realised I forgot to tell him about my tonsil being swollen, so then I started panicking and thinking "oh god, what if the tonsil has lymphoma and it spread down to the lymph node I thought got bigger" and started panicking again. I rung my Dr the next day (so 2 days ago) and asked him for some anti biotics, I told him my tonsil is slightly swollen but I'm in no pain. He gave me the anti biotics and I started taking them that night.
That brings me to now. It's been 40 hours since I started the anti biotics and while my tonsil hasn't got bigger or anything, it hasn't gone down in size.
Here is my problem, I am 50/50 about the entire situation, so I need some seriously good advice from you all to get over this mess.
1. Do I put the swollen tonsil down to allergies? Or maybe down to my head making me think it's swollen when it's actually not? I don't know. Do I trust the Dr that my lymph node feels fine and that I can trust his promise that I'm okay. He is a lovely man and has never been wrong, but my anxiety sometimes makes me question his judgement.
or
2. Do I go with my own feelings of fear that there might be something else at work here? Do I trust the stories I've found on the web about people being told they're fine then finding out they have cancer and go be further tested? Do I trust my paranoia that the lymph node and tonsil have both grown and should I take the lymphoma thoughts into real consideration?
I have no other symptoms other then (what I believe) to be a slightly swollen tonsil and a lymph node I think has grown (the lymph node isn't swollen, I just think it's grown)
Please give brutal honesty, I don't care how nasty you are, please be dead serious. I was meant to be staying with a friend this week but I cannot go because once again, my health anxiety has put my entire life on hold.
Thank you for reading this essay lol I will really appreciate any feedback and advice.