Lymphoma -PLEASE DONT TELL ME THE SYMPTOMS

[Dan21]

Hello.

I've had a niggling problem for a few weeks now and after three doctors visits it's still going on. I've been told that it could be stress related but I can't get my head around this. The details of an earlier post regards the same problem are below:

July 1st
About a week ago I experienced a kind of itch around my prostate area. It was a little uncomfortable when I passed water but nothing burning or stinging to any great degree. I also had a noticable ache around my lower back which was causing me more discomfort. None of this I can describe as being actually painful, more uncomfortable. I went to the doctor and was tested for a water infection and chlamydia (I'm fairly sure it wont be any form of STD). Anyway, over the weekend the symptoms have not really got any better or any worse. Against all of my better judgement I Googled the symptoms and read about a condition called epididymitis which seems to give similar symptoms to those I've got.

But my fear is that I have undiagnosed testicular/prostate cancer or the lower back pain is something terrible wrong with my kidneys. On top of all this, my anxiety is making me feel sick and I'm now wondering whether or not this is another symptom of something terrible.

I really could do with some words of encouragement. I've just moved house last week and I'm completely knackered with everything. I should be enjoying this new time but I'm bordering on the completely miserable.

2nd July
Pete, funnily enough the back ache and aching between the legs has sort of become more predominant over the last few days. I went back to the doctors yesterday and she thought I might have thrush - prescribed me a one hit tablet to clear up any signs of it....but I'm not convinced it's that. She did put my mind at rest regards the fear of testicular cancer as there appears to be no physical signs of it and she said if there was anything wrong with my kidneys, it would have noticible in the urine tests (which came back clear).

I read that problems with kidneys are usually felt as sharp pains rather than dull aches, which, as you mentioned tend to be muscular. I do hope this is the case for me as I'm really very anxious about this whole situation.

My wife is almost at her wits end trying to convince me that there is nothing wrong with me - why can't I accept this, even after two doctors visits?

But even after all this, I remember hearing that aching in the testicles and prostate area as well as the lower back can be a sign of early lymphoma. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not tell me what the symptoms are if anyone knows, I could just do with some reassurance that this may indeed be stress related and obviously if this doesn't sound like lymphoma then I'd love to know that too.

Thanks,

Dan

[blueangel]

Hi Dan

I'm afraid I don't know that much about "men's stuff", I'm afraid, as I'm not a bloke! However, what I can say is that over the years, I have suffered all manner of symptoms which I didn't think could possibly be linked with anxiety - I could fill a large sheet of paper with them.

As far as the prostate cancer thing goes, if you're under 50, it's INCREDIBLY RARE, so that's the easy one to write off. Testicular cancer, as far as I know, is almost unheard of unless there's a discernible lump - so you're probably OK on that front as well.

The lymphoma one is a bit tougher - I have to say I don't know huge amounts about it, but doctors tend to look for "triggers" when patients are giving the history of what their symptoms are. I know this because I had a discussion with my GP about this years ago. I was suffering really badly with HA at the time and ended up seeing him about all sorts of stuff. I asked him once why he didn't think I had such-and-such a problem (can't even remember what it was now - possibly leukaemia :wacko:) and he said "because you're not reporting the symptoms that I know are a trigger for me to act". He then added that he wasn't going to tell me the symptoms in case I started mimicking them! (he is a very good GP!)

Therefore, I can only assume that at the moment, your symptoms aren't triggering your GP to think "hmm, Dan might have lymphoma".

I think the next question is - do you trust your GP? If you don't, do you think you would trust one of the others at the practice enough to tell them exactly what you're worried about? Doctors can only ever treat us if they know what the problem is, and if we turn up at the surgery with vague symptoms and in a complete state of wibble, they tend to not be able to help us.

Don't know whether this is helpful or not, but this is my two pennyworth from an old fart who has had HA for most of her life. :D