Collar bone lymph node - what size is normal?

[justina]

I have had itchy skin for several months now. Had some basic blood tests done, they came back normal. My dr also touched my neck and belly, she didn't find anything strange.

Now, yesterday i noticed a lymph node near my right collar bone, about 1 cm above the collar bone to be exact. This totally freaks me out because I have read so many times that this is not a nice place to have swollen lymph nodes (=it is a sign of lymphoma or other cancer).

My first thought was to run back to my GP. But then I tried to think about it. I have had a bad cold something like a month ago, but collar bone lymph nodes usually are not involved in throat infections, are they?

It is not very big. It is about 1 cm or little less. It is not very hard and I can move it around.

Together with the itching, it makes me really scared. I would like to hear your opinion...is it wise of me to give it 2,3 maybe 4 weeks before I go to the doctor about it? I really don't want to go because I am too upset and worried... but at the same time, what if it is cancer? Then it would not be very wise to wait...

Help!

[MaryMac]

I'm the same as you, I'm constantly checking for lymph glands and have been itchy, had colds and am paranoid about lymphoma/leukemia! The last few days, I'm convinced one of my tonsils is bigger than the other and constantly have the torch in my mouth to check. Crazy! But I think with a cancer, the swollen glands are very hard and immovable, and probably grow quite fast. They say to wait 6 weeks to see if it goes down, but if you don't want to worry yourself for that long, then go to the doctors. That's what they're here for anyway! You'll be fine.

[justina]

6 weeks!? I don't think I'll be able to wait that long!!!

Thanks a lot for your words...It's awful to worry like this.

[lo89]

Lymphoma is my main worry at the moment, and since finding out about the existance and locations of lymph nodes, I swear they feel swollen. Not to touch, I mean when I am walking around I can feel pressure where my groin nodes are, I have pressure where my spleen us, I have pressure all around my neck and under my chin, around my collarbone, and on my scalp too! It has got to the point that I am in a strange cycle of checking compulsively, then having w total fear of even brushing my hand against any of these areas! Every tiny bump I find throws me into a horrible state of worry!

[Ronno]

Hi justina.
Here is my story , I hope it might help.
Back in my teens ( a long time ago ) I had large tonsils, so large they almost touched . Every winter I was off school sick .then . I made the very big mistake of reading a medical book ( no google back then ) and came across " hodgkins lymphoma " oh no my symptoms fitted !! Over many months I worried myself sick, in the end I told my doctor what I thought. He laughed and said its not that,but you will need to have your tonsils out. This I did , no problem. But now I knew to much ,and was convinced I was going to develope hodgkins lymphoma.every day I checked my neck, shoulders, armpits and groins for gland which I olways found , because they where supposed to be there . I was parinoid ,I made my and my doctors life a misery . ( by the way I didn't suffer from full blown anxiety then !! ) .
Many many years later 2006 my wife who had never been sick in her life, stated loosing weight , developed a cough, felt constantly tired and under the weather.
We thought it was a virus . She didn't go to the doctor,
A few weeks later she found a lump under her armpit , the size of a chicken egg.that came up over night , and at that point she went to the doctor .seeing the enlarge gland and hearing her symptoms she acted straight away, ordering a blood test and scan. When the results came back, the blood test reviled somthing going on ( with her white blood count increasing ) and the scan , three enlarged lymph nodes . They all caused symptoms . The ones in the neck and armpit you could see and caused great aching in the shoulder and arm, the one in the chest wall caused the cough and breathlessness . When a month later they took out the enlarged lymph node under her arm . 4 cm in size, the biopsy confermed , would you believe , hodgkins lymphoma !! Her other symptoms intense itching all over, and we were told later by a consultant that if you drink alcohol the gland affected get painfull ? Also interesting all the affected glands were on the left hand side . But she didn't have the drenching night sweats which are usual .some one close to me was living my worst fear. But do you know what I lost that fear straight away, why, because the symptoms were compleatly differant to what I imagined .and I was looking for somthing that wasn't there.
We see somthing on tv , or read somthing in a magazine , usually relating to cancer, and as anxiety sufferers we are vulnerable , our minds run riot.
We work our self up for months even years , then see the doctor, he's busy , we're terrified , show him or her a lump or bump ,and some odd symptoms only to be told nine times out of ten " oh that's nothing to worry about " but we still do.
Perhaps we should be braver ( easier said than done ) show the doctor what your concerned about ,but also what's your fear , and let him be the judge .
Any way six years later my wife's sill here and as fit as you like . And once a year when she has check up , we see the other patients she had her treatment with.
I hope I've helped in some way , and try to remember , it's not just an enlarged gland , it's the other symptoms that comes with it.