Lump under chin - very panicked

[Freddiemercury]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading your site for a while and finally decided to join and become a member. Your site has already helped me so much and I am hoping you can maybe give me some reassurance now.

Last week I found a lump under my chin, in the soft area between the jaw bone. I panicked because it was very hard like bone. It feels round and does not move at all, very fixed in place. It also does not hurt. Yes I admit I went on google (and have been on there torturing myself for about a week :wacko:) and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, I read said a hard, fixed, painless lump is a sign of malignancy. It just kept going back to that over and over again.

I have an appointment with an ENT tomorrow and I think because my appt is so close I have really melted down today. I have always had health anxiety since childhood, but it's gotten worse in the past few years since I lost several loved ones, including a 7-year-old cousin. Now it is more intense and I will sink into a depression thinking the worst and will start ruminating over things like having to say goodbye to my husband and parents and all the dreams I have in life. I've broken down crying to my husband several times over the past week and feel 100% sure the doc is going to tell me the worst.

I recognize that if I do find out this is nothing, I seriously need to go back to therapy to address these issues because it can be quite debilitating. But in the meantime, anyone else have a lump like this that turned out to be nothing?

Thanks everyone :)

[robin321]

Most lumps are nothing. Google shows you the most popular pages, and those are unfortunately the negative ones.

I had a large lump on my neck. I was sure it was cancer. So sure I didn't even post about it here because I didn't want to freak anyone out. It was a normal lymph node, and went away after a few weeks of leaving it alone.

I am sure you will be ok. Let us know how it goes, and welcome on board!

[Freddiemercury]

Thanks so much for your reply. It's amazing how strongly we can convince ourselves right? I'm glad your turned out okay. I'm hoping for the best tomorrow and that I can come on and emphatically tell everyone GOOGLE IS WRONG :)

[Speranza]

Sounds like a salivary gland... or a lymph node...

[aria2]

I have a little harmless nodule of bone under there that feels like that. But there's all sorts of lumps and bumps in that region - lymph nodes and such.

[Freddiemercury]

Just wanted to say I returned from the doc and he was lovely and very thorough. He took my concerns very seriously. He felt the lump and feels there isn't anything to be worried about. In case it makes anyone else feel better, he told me that to me the lump was hard and fixed but to him it was not. He said if I was ever able to feel a malignant lump I would see a stark difference. He also told me to stay off google! He wanted to do an ultrasound just to be extra safe and close the book on it, but they didn't have a proper on at this office. So he actually tried to do it with the one they use for prostate exams in the urology department :D It was pretty hilarious. But he didn't get a good read (obviously) so I will have a proper one next month. But again it's more to be safe than sorry, he was not concerned and given that he is a cancer specialist I feel much much better.

Thanks to all of you for your support!