Collarbone lymph node? CBT and anxiety. please help.

[hotandbothered]

Before I start, I am in the early stages of CBT and I am really trying to calm down and relax about my health. I'm just really struggling today.

I have a fixation on my left breast and have done for about 12 years (I'm 30.) The CBT recently has helped me see the wood from the trees and I have pretty much decided that my left breast is actually fine and normal.

However, last week, I noticed a small hard (grain of rice size) lump in my supra clavicle area on the left side. Sometimes I check and it's not there, but in the last 12 hours when I've checked it is always there. It has sent me in a tail spin and I'm going back where I started before the CBT.

In the past few weeks I had my ears pierced and they got infected, I also have toothache on the left side and I had a bit of left side back pain when breathing like an infection that passed. Could this lymph node be from an infection?

I went to the Doctor last year about a left side lymph node in the same place and she said it wasn't there. I guess I'm just spiralling a bit and I'm not sure what is a real threat or not.

[Limeslime]

“A grain of rice” is the normal size if a healthy lymph node. If you keep prodding it, it will enlarge and frighten you even more. Try to forget about it and just check on it monthly for the reassurance that it hasn’t changed.
I e been to my gp twice for lymph nodes on collarbone that I also described as being like a grain of rice. Both times I was told they were normal sized and only to worry if they get bigger than 1cm or size of a grape

[hotandbothered]

“A grain of rice” is the normal size if a healthy lymph node. If you keep prodding it, it will enlarge and frighten you even more. Try to forget about it and just check on it monthly for the reassurance that it hasn’t changed.
I e been to my gp twice for lymph nodes on collarbone that I also described as being like a grain of rice. Both times I was told they were normal sized and only to worry if they get bigger than 1cm or size of a grape

Thank you for your reply, it helps to get a bit of perspective. It’s so hard when you’re in the grip of an anxiety spiral to talk yourself down!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hotandbothered]

I just wanted to reply to this again for anyone who stumbles across it in days, weeks or months who is panicking.

The lymph node I could feel was there for a month. It turned out I had an infection nearby and the node disappeared after antibiotics. It was nothing sinister and I didn’t even feel ill. My brain just went to worst case scenario!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk