I have a couple of lumps in my neck - apparently they are rather unhappy lymph nodes. Only on one side, and about the size of peas.
I’m not asking for a specific medical opinion. I already saw my doctor, but this was a couple of months ago. She said not to worry about them unless they didn’t go away or got bigger.
Well, they’re still there. When I saw her, there was one. Now there are two. They keep waxing and waning, but they’re always there. Not really any bigger, though.
Is this anything I should worry about? Should I be pestering my doctor again, or just waiting until they disappear of their own accord. I’m not normally a hypochondriac, but a health scare last year has kinda got me spooked, and I don’t want to hang around like I did last time, until it gets to the oh-my-god-that’s-obviously-a-problem-stage (and found a, thankfully benign, tumour the size of a watermelon - oops!).
Anybody have experience with these things, and what turned out to be the problem, if anything?
Let me chime in with my own un-professional advice: Talk about this with your doctor. This is the sort of thing that is impossible to diagnose effectively over the internet. Either it doesn’t worry you, in which case you should ignore everything in this thread and go on living your life, or it does concern you, in which case you should ignore everything in this thread and see a doctor. Schedule periodic blood tests to track your own, personal blood levels (as there is quite a range of “normal” levels for CBC results).
How are you feeling? Are you feeling ill or anything?
Back in September I had a few of those. The first started off small at my right ear. I thought it would go away in a couple of days, maybe I just had a cold. Then over the course of a week the lymph nodes from my right ear down to my throat began to swell and were sore to the touch and it turns out I had a pretty aggressive bacterial infection. I took the first of my antibiotics which shrunk but did not completely get rid of the swelling. When I realized that they were getting larger and that my body was not going to be able to fight it off on its own, I went back and got another antibiotic to finish it off. All in all, I was really ill for a month.
I guess it depends on how you’re feeling, but I don’t think that it’s normal to have swelled nodes for so long. I would go back to your doctor or at least get a second opinion.
I can say that I’ve got those regularly for the past few years. I’ve more or less ignored them. However, I’m 21 and I think I’m immortal, and so I may not be a great role model.
Often, enlarged lymph nodes due to viral illnesses stay that way for some time (sometimes even ‘forever’). But, of course, lymph nodes due to “sinister” causes (such as lymphoma) will also persist, but will usually continue to grow (or coincide with other, ‘systemic’, symptoms - see below).
As a general rule, small nodes (i.e. < 1 cm), located towards the back of the head and neck, that are tender, and not hard like a stone or even Indian rubber, are benign in nature. Unless there are worrisome symptoms in association (such as unexplained fevers, drenching sweats (especially at night), or weight loss), most docs would leave such nodes alone. It might be worth checking for mono in such a circumstance, not that any treatment would be forthcoming.
My comments above are general in natural and are not given, nor to be taken, as medical advice.
Many thanks for all your replies. It seems that like a lot of things, there’s a wide variation in what is considered normal.
I guess when I first noticed them, I’d been a bit vaguely under the weather, but since then, apart from a cold, I thought I’d been feeling better. I have been under a lot of stress, though, so maybe that’s contributed to them lingering.
They’re not sore, and not really visible, but I can feel them. Sometimes there’s one, sometimes two. But they aren’t getting bigger.
I guess the best thing to do is monitor them, monitor my general health, and go and see my doctor if I’m worried. With my health scare last year, I’m a lot more vigilant than I’ve ever been about my health.
Um, your doctor said not to worry about them unless they didn’t go away? And this was a couple of months ago and they haven’t gone away? Perhaps a return trip to the doctor is in order.