Reassurance/Believing the Doctor

[joeyr]

I have a hard lump that's come up out of seemingly nowhere on my forehead over the last 2/3 weeks I think - it's really hard, like bone, and you can't move it - about the size of a pea. The skin moves over it. I got an appointment with the doctor yesterday but he was an hour behind in appointments and kind of just felt it and said not to worry abut it and if it gets bigger to come back, and then rushed me out. I actually asked him what it was, and he just said 'nothing to worry about, now go and have a nice Christmas.'

I got home, and Googled. So now I'm back to square one, worrying about the lump. I know though that I'm worrying because of my OCD/Health Anxiety, which I've had CBT for and it's helped but I can feel myself falling down a bit of a spiral. My brain is telling me that I've been to the doctor, he wasn't worried and I should now just get on with my life and forget about it. I had an MRI scan of my brain last year for something unrelated so surely something would have shown up then if it was serious. But somewhere I'm imagining worst case scenarios and panicking. I'm facing Christmas just thinking of this and starting to feel depressed. I just wonder how a doctor can tell between something serious and something not serious in just 3 seconds, and I suppose his reluctance to speak to me and reassure me hasn't helped in me feeling like this.

I suppose I'm looking for some reassurance in how you believe your doctor with something like this, and don't always just keep looking for the diagnosis (even online) that you're expecting. How can I calm myself down?

Any help would be wonderful, thank you.

[bubx]

I need help with this too. I've asked in the past few months at least 5 doctors about my palpable lymph nodes but still not reassured :weep: it's a good thing primary care and basic scans are free, where I'm from

[Leslie735]

Right there with you, exactly. Except not my fore head, its my ankle. I have a little lump, exactly how you describe (hard like bone, not movable, can slide the skin over it) below my right outside ankle area. I've had it for near 3 years (at least that is when I noticed it) but noticed it felt a little bigger back in October so I saw my doctor. She didn't think it was anything but put me in for an Xray. The xray showed a "calcified density" probably from an old injury. I don't recall hurting my ankle but who knows? I let it go and felt better. Well I'm back to worrying about it because I read on google that calcification can mean sarcomas. I was just trying to decide if I should go see another doctor for another opinion, this morning. I want to wait until after Christmas though. *hugs* I so understand how you feel. Feel free to PM me.