Lymphoma scare? any advice would be much appreciated

[refreshingsanity]

So I finally got over the nastiest flu/cold virus i ever had!!! but regardless, i still went to my nurse practitioner to see her about a lump near my mastoid bone/upper neck ear area? its right below my hair line on the side of my neck parallel to my left ear. i noticed a week ago. and yes, i did keep touching it but it seems to get bigger sometimes then shrinks again. its not the size of a pea but not the size of a golf ball either. its painful to the touch and is only moveable sometimes. although, she seemed somewhat concerned because of where it was located, and said it would've been a lymph node under my jaw that would've swelled up if it was due to my cold. at that moment, i was terrified. she said "I'm 95% sure its not cancer, but its always a possibility (lymphoma)". this just freaked me out. i got a blood test done right after, and don't find out results until tuesday. she checked to see if i had other swollen lymph nodes and it was all clear thankfully. I told her I'm not experiencing any other symptoms, and she said "i don't mean to scare you but sometimes only one symptom can appear" :/ mind you I'm only 17 and would be completely devastated if i have this, i planned so many things for these upcoming months and i don't want those things to be ruined. now my right leg hurts and I'm experiencing heartburn, and pain in my armpit.i keep touching my collarbone and armpit areas just so scared that a new lump will appear. I'm so anxious and have cried all day. its just that one pebble sized lump. i was scared about leukemia this whole time, but now that my nurse mentioned lymphoma, i completely think i have that now. any of you experienced anything similar to this? i have had this same bump in the same area a few years back when i was younger for a while, then it went down.

[AnxiousAbbie]

That nurse had an awful bedside manner!! You said you just had a nasty cold - I'm sure your little node is still upset over that. It can take nodes a long time to go back to normal, if they even do! I have a couple of permanent shotty nodes under my jaw and on the side of my neck (and yes, I went through a massive scare about this a year ago). They are fine - and they have never gone away either.

If it helps, doctors only really worry if the node is around 3cm and it doesn't sound like yours is near that size. Don't stress - if the docs are worried they will be onto this in no time. My bet is that you're completely fine. ��

[refreshingsanity]

That nurse had an awful bedside manner!! You said you just had a nasty cold - I'm sure your little node is still upset over that. It can take nodes a long time to go back to normal, if they even do! I have a couple of permanent shotty nodes under my jaw and on the side of my neck (and yes, I went through a massive scare about this a year ago). They are fine - and they have never gone away either.

If it helps, doctors only really worry if the node is around 3cm and it doesn't sound like yours is near that size. Don't stress - if the docs are worried they will be onto this in no time. My bet is that you're completely fine. ��

thank you for helping me calm down a bit more.actually thinking about it, i think my cold was a minor infection since my mucus was super green (gross, sorry :0) the bump feels at most 2 cm? but probably got that size from me touching it every moment that i can :( the nurse said it was the size of an eraser?? and by that i didn't know if she meant the erasers on top of pencils or the ones that come separately. my mom says its not even visible, but i do see it poke out sometimes.

[bubx]

I have one in that position you described (Cervical?) and one under my jaw. I’ve checked with 6 doctors and trust me, they all said it was fine. Mine came up in May 2017 when the flu was going around. They never went completely down and sometimes goes up when I’m sick

[ryan0987]

I am so sorry that you had to go through that. I think even those without health anxiety would be anxious hearing what the nurse practitioner said.

You said the same node did get enlarged years ago, so it’s likely it’s a node that is sensitive to you being sick. I am sure it will go away in time like before. In any case, considering your age it’s highly unlikely it’s anything serious. Hope you’re feeling better.


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[worrywart29]

Wow. I’m extremely surprised by the way the nurse responded to your concerns. I’m sorry she didn’t have better bedside manners. A swollen node could be tons of things.she should have said that instead of hinting towards possible cancer. I hope your results come back all clear!

[OutOfExile]

Agreed, terrible response by a medical professional. My first round of health anxiety was triggered by a similar experience. Went to the doctor for a lymph node, asked the NP if it could be cancer, and her response was "oh yeah, could be", which of course had me writing my own eulogy. Literally no idea why a health care provider would overstate the likelihood of something devastating when all they did was poke your neck for 5 seconds. (by the way, turned out to be nothing at all - that's a running theme in this forum)

I'm sure what you're doing now is giving yourself a 5% chance of something serious since the nurse was 'only' 95% sure that it wasn't cancer - don't do that! :D. Given your age, the fact that you just had an upper respiratory infection, and location, it's wildly unlikely it's anything to worry about. These things can pop up for any reason at all - you could have had drainage from your sinuses down into your ear canals which could easily cause a node to pop up in the exact location you're describing (that's what a much better doctor told me a different time that I went in for a different lymph node, which also was also nothing, because that's what swollen lymph nodes tend to be - nothing).

Also don't freak out if the swelling doesn't go down right away. Can take weeks, months, longer - might never get back to the same size.

[neuroticcat]

I had a sore throat about a month ago. I went to an urgent care and the doctor over there said it's a virus. I also had a visibly swollen lymph node the size of medium/big grape on the side of my neck (posterior cervical) that freaked me out more than the sore throat. She said it's probably related to the virus i had and it should go down in 2- 4 weeks AFTER I feel better, and it did, not completely but it did go down a lot. It's not visible anymore and i have to poke around and look for it to find it.
She also said that it will fluctuate in size.

I hope this helps