View Full Version : What is this? Please help..
Hello, I have something new to be worried about ( terrible brains grrr) i'm worried about 2 round things I feel on both sides of my neck. I will add a picture where I have marked it with 2 circles. I have asked the people around me and they say it's just muscles that I feel. For some reason I don't believe them and I think it's my salivary glands with cancer.. I'm hoping someone can help me out here. The people around me say things fast to try and calm me down and shut me up.
It's not rock hard or anything either.
https://postimg.org/image/69o4imly3/
Skin that stretches from the throat to the chin?
No.. Didn't mean the skin. Meant deeper of course.
I've dug around there, and found some pretty weird things :shrug: probably just the threat or a muscle. Check with your doctor just in case
If you have to dig to feel anything, it's nothing to be concerned with. I disagree with going to the doctor on this and the "Told ya so gang" is standing by if you do ;)
Positive thoughts
Thank you both for the replies. Fishmanpa, you think that way about every bump or lump someone feels? To feel these harder parts what I marked on the picture, I do need to push a bit harder to feel what I feel..
Grr why can't I just stop worrying about cancer..
ShaunRyder
18-12-17, 17:11
You can find many lumps and bumps in the body if you go looking well enough ( I know this too well), especially the neck area, I can feel loads of soft bumps in there. But like Fishmanpa said, if you can only feel it while digging then nothing to be concerned about. ( I feel abit hypocritical saying this to you as I am currently worrying over a lump myself :doh: )
Fishmanpa, you think that way about every bump or lump someone feels?
Because I'm a Head and Neck cancer survivor. SCC, N2b, MO, Stage IVa HPV+...really bad stuff! I know many others that have had the same or worse. You do not present in any way, shape or form nor do you fit the profile of someone that would have cancer or even a swollen node! That's why :lac:
Based on your pic and description, my gut tells me your feeling your hyoid bone or some other natural structure. Again, you don't have to go searching for swollen nodes, they let you know!
Positive thoughts
Pff maybe I'm just worrying about nothing again. Thanks for your reply again Fishmanpa, they do help more than people around me saying it's just muscles I feel. So you're basicly saying, if there was cancer there, I'd feel the swollen part without having to turn my head or move it in any position to be able to feel the cancer right? To feel these 2 bumps I have to look towards the roof (lol.. Up that is!) or push harder to feel it when I just keep my head straight.
I had swollen nodes on the left side of my neck from a sinus infection the end of August 2012. No biggie. I went through a round of antibiotics and the nodes went down but one stayed, was visible, rock hard and didn't move. No other symptoms. Now were into October... still there and bigger. Another round of antibiotics... nothing. November, off to the ENT and was diagnosed shortly after. By the time I went in for surgery, it looked like I had the mumps!
Cancer in an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It doesn't come and go nor does it stop once it starts.
I'm not a doctor but I can most assuredly say and for the last time, nothing you describe sounds sinister. Please seek real life help with your anxiety. You're much too young to be worrying about crap like this!
Positive thoughts
But Fishmanpa, I do actually feel some lymphnodes without having to dig or push hard or anything. They are not big though, well one is very soft and long. 3 others are pea sized little balls. This is normal too?
Stop. Touching. Your. Neck! :doh:
Positive thoughts
I probably shouldn't have read this thread as I'm a bit worried about a lump on my neck/throat at the moment but I did......
If it's on both sides and in the same EXACT spot on each side, I personally wouldn't worry. Perhaps it's part of you anatomy and is supposed to be there??? I found a pea size very hard lump that didn't move in 2012 in my left Paratiod gland. I had a cat scan and the results said it was a 9mm contrast enhancing tumor. I saw 2 different ENT Drs and neither one of them seemed concerned about it and in the end I decided against having my paratiod gland removed... I am glad I did because I had another ct scan without contrast early August of this year of my neck to check on it and it came back clean... No tumor.... it must have been a saliva stone... Basically what my point is, is that not every lump or bump is bad news.
I know it's hard not to worry as I to am worried over the same thing but try??? I never go poking at my body because when one does this, they are sure to find something and that something is probably normal and then all the worry and sleepless nights were for nothing...
I would say if you poked and prodded to find these 2 lumps they probably are nothing to worry about it.. If you notice they get bigger or change then see a Dr. I also don't think pea sized lymph nodes are something to worry about. Lymph nodes have a job to do and enlarge when they are working. I would probably be more concerned if they didn't and one last thing... Lymphoma believe it or not is actually pretty rare when compared to other types of cancer. Try not to worry....
Thanks for your message Careful1, I'm glad the results came back clear for you! The mind is a very weird thing, there are days that I feel completely fine without any fears but those get replaced very fast by the bad days of constant worrying. The 2 bumps I feel are on both sides yes, one is maybe a little bigger than the other but I'm sure I have felt this before. Yet I have no idea why it is now that I'm so afraid of it and wasn't before. As for my pea sized nodes, they are on the sides of my neck on both sides. Been there for at least a year, well that was when I first noticed them or started searching for them? It all started with a pea sized little ball in the back of my neck. I have been to many doctors with that one and a ENT and they all say it's nothing to worry about and my own doctor said it was just a muscle knot. Strange how muscle knots feel the same as lymphnodes..
Fishmanpa, I did not touch my neck yesterday anymore but started doing so this morning again. I just don't know how a person will notice something is really bad if a person shouldn't be checking their nodes. What if I stop and eventually I miss something like lymphoma because I stopped checking? I might be too late then.. As I said, the mind is a strange thing.
I know this is probably "food for the dragon ;)" but please, you know more about this than I do and for some reason your replies do help others (me including) to feel better, even if it's just for a while. Pea sized nodes, they are normal? Even if they stay and don't go away like ever?
You won't miss something if you stop checking because lymph nodes alert you when they detect something. You don't have to physically check your lymph nodes. When they detect something they enlarge and it's a noticeable change. You could be causing them to enlarge by poking at them and once one of them is enlarged it won't go back to normal if you keep touching it.
You could be causing them to enlarge by poking at them and once one of them is enlarged it won't go back to normal if you keep touching it.
Not "could" but "will". Poking and prodding causes them to react. Constant poking and prodding can cause them to become shotty (permanently enlarged). That being said, it goes back to what I said initially. If you have to go poking and prodding or turning your head this way and that, they're not "swollen"!
Positive thoughts
I know a good friend who had cancer, won't specify which type, but his gland in that region was so swollen, it was literally the size of a baseball. It was absolutely obvious that something very serious was wrong. I am with Fishmanpa on this one, I only see a normal, healthy neck there, and a doctor will absolutely wonder why you came in.
As an aside, have you lost weight recently? When you lose weight (I shaved off the last ten pounds I have been fighting for 20 years recently) and the glands and bumps etc feel bigger to me, just because there is less tissue over them.
---------- Post added at 15:40 ---------- Previous post was at 15:38 ----------
Also, since you mentioned lymphoma, I know someone who had it as well. Swollen glands were the least of his problems. There was no mistaking that he was very, very sick, and something really bad was wrong.
Both people I mentioned, by the way, beat their cancers. One beat his 30 years ago, the other one just got his remission clearance this year.
Thank you both for your replies and information, honestly when I have my good days, I know that I am fine and got nothing to worry about and try to make plans to enjoy the day (that part always fails though).
I also really don't know if those pea sized things have been there for years. It all started with one pea sized thing in the back of my neck which doctors say is normal and my family doctor say is a muscle knot. Since then I started checking my neck more and felt the other pea sized balls/nodes. They could even be there my whole life! Yet for some reason my mind can't switch to believing that they could have been there for years already.
This constant fear of lymphoma has been here for a year now and right now, with my good mind and thoughts, I'm sure if I did have anything like that, I would've had more symptoms or they would have been the sizes of what you both told me in your replies. I feel this way now but probably tomorrow I'm scared again.
I don't know when this health anxiety about cancer started. I have always had a bit of obsessively checking doors, windows, the electricity and things like that. Making sure everything was locked up and the pets in the house were still alive etc etc before I was able to sleep. The fear of cancer started last year, November to be exact. First I thought it might have a connection with the death of my dad but that was 4 years ago and our relationship wasn't that good either. I have no idea, I do know that I hate feeling and thinking this way. There is nothing fun in my daily life anymore because I just don't see the point, the silly mind thinking "why do something fun if you're dying anyway? Why start playing a game if you can't finish it anyway because you're dying" etc etc. It's so annoying.
I did lose some weight, not loads but people around me do say I have lost a bit. 2 months ago I started on the cross trainer for 60 minutes and that 5 times a week, I end up having 37 kms on the display so I'm guessing that losing a bit of weight is because of that for sure.
Sorry for the long message! I sure do look silly for you guys..
emily51964
03-01-18, 00:52
Hi - I am really worrying about a similar thing - but I have a hard lump on the back of my neck, it doesn't hurt and everything I google points to cancer - just had a huge anxiety attack over it 😩 I'm so scared. It's on the right side but on the very back of my neck
I have had a pea sized hard thing in the back of my neck for almost 2 years now Emily , well in march that is. I have been worried sick about it too and did many things to make it big and hard myself. Now that I don't touch it anymore it stays pea sized and hard but it didn't get any bigger or any other changes. I think I can say I have my HA in controle right now and I have to thank the people who responded to my messages in this thread. Honestly Emily, read the responses they gave me here, read them often and make sure you read the words right and put them in your mind to think about! What really helped me was the responses they gave me about golf sized nodes, and the mumps reaction of Fishmanpa! These are stories that are real or that someone experienced with someone else that they know. Google just gives you fake stories, horrible stories! Don't let it take you to that point that you're constantly afraid of having something bad. Read the messages here, visit your doctor if that will help you and forget google :). You can do it!!
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