Lymph node (I know sorry) in my neck getting bigger

[Andromeda]

Morning all.

I'm sorry to add to the endless lymph node posts but I've spent the entire morning reading through every single one on here in hope that I'll find some sort of reassurance or relief for my issue and instead I just feel 10x worse!

I discovered a small lump in my neck In December 2013, I left it a few months before going to the doctor but I eventually did in around March 2014.

She had a feel of it and came to the conclusion that it was a sebaceous cyst and told me to think nothing more of it!

So I didn't...until it continued to grow.

I saw another doctor this summer who had a feel of it and agreed that it had got bigger but that it still wasn't, in her opinion, cause for concern. So I trusted her judgement and away I went.

Then in September I had had enough and went back to the doctor to say it was causing me pain and still getting bigger so she referred me for an ultrasound.

The sonographer took her time to look all over my neck and told me that it was an enlarged lymph node and not a cyst.

She said all the other Nodes in my neck looked fine and this one was only 0.5mm - apparently they don't do anything until it's over 1cm.

So I skipped away feeling relieved until it dawned on me...well what do they do at 1mm? Because mine keeps increasing in size!!!!!!

I've been sick recently with a virus and then tonsillitis and it feels like it's got even more massive so I have an appointment with my docotor for Tuesday because I'm freaking out now.

It's been 2 years and it's getting bigger, slowly, but still bigger.

I found myself digging deeply into lymphoma forums engrossed in stories of people going to the GP with a similar lump that gets bigger and coming out with a diagnosis of lymphoma eventually. I don't know why I do it to myself.:shrug:

So that's where I'm at now. Spending my Christmas convinced a diagnosis of lymphoma is on the horizon.

There'd never any relief!

[Fishmanpa]

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It doesn't come and go nor does it stop once it starts.

This is "one" node .05cm that you've had for two years! Note that I said cancer is an "uncontrolled growth". That means it really grows.. uncontrollably. The cancerous node in my neck grew...fast! It also spread to an adjoining node. In the 3 months from first noticing the node during a sinus infection to diagnosis, it grew from less than a grape size to close to 5cm. And by the time I went in for surgery to remove them, it looked like I had the mumps on the left side of my neck!

Knowing that most folks with here poke and prod as a matter of habit, I'm 100% sure that's the case here as well. Sure you have times where that wanes but I'll bet my bottom dollar you've been digging into more than the lymphoma forums and made the poor thing shotty by all the poking you've done. And please... please do not go on those forums and ask real sufferers about your symptoms for reassurance. It's disrespectful to those that are really suffering.

The lymph system is like a highway in our body. If indeed this were sinister and the illness you fear, in two years it would have really grown and traveled and infected other areas. Also, normal nodes can be up to 1.5-2cm in size depending.

Why ruin your Christmas on a irrational fear? :shrug: Enjoy it... IMO, there's no way you have lymphoma. I'm not a doctor, just someone who 100% agrees with yours ;)

Positive thoughts

[WorryWortAgain]

The reason there's an influx of lymph node posts is that it's cold & flu season. Lymph nodes enlarge when they're fighting off infection. Your body is doing its job! Try not to worry! ��