Lymph node is driving me insane.
June 7, 2015 10:31 AM Subscribe
I have an enlarged lymph node in my neck and I can't decide if I should be worried or not. YANMD. Details inside.
22 year old female, otherwise healthy. I first noticed the swollen lymph node a few months ago, probably around March 2015. The lymph node seems to be a superficial or deep cervical node. I can only feel one and it is on the right side of my neck. I can feel no other lymph nodes anywhere. It is about the size of a pea, slightly squishy, and it moves around under my skin. It is completely painless. I have no other symptoms other than fatigue but that's nothing new and probably related to anxiety/depression.
Normally I wouldn't be too worried about being able to feel my lymph node. A few times in the past I've had palpable nodes - about six years ago I could even feel one under my clavicle (a more "serious" place to feel a node apparently) but it just went away. I also had one on the back of my neck near my hairline last fall that popped up and then went away. The only reason I'm concerned is that this node has been palpable for three months or more now. I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone. Doctors online have written that it is entirely normal for adults to have small lymph nodes under 1cm (mine definitely is) and then I've also read that any lymph node that you can feel for longer than a month needs to be biopsied.
Another factor in all this that makes me think that maybe I shouldn't be worried is that I have a microdermal piercing on the back of my neck that has been pretty irritated for the past few months (probably since January or so) and almost constantly has some sort of lymph discharge around it.
Essentially I'm just trying to gauge if I need to be concerned or not. I have an anxiety disorder so I'm very worried about going to the doctor and having to have a biopsy, multiple return visits, etc. that I've seen people who have a mysterious enlarged node go through online. I also am concerned about the cost of the medical procedures because I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to my health and am already in debt from a CT scan I had last year after falling and knocking myself out.
22 year old female, otherwise healthy. I first noticed the swollen lymph node a few months ago, probably around March 2015. The lymph node seems to be a superficial or deep cervical node. I can only feel one and it is on the right side of my neck. I can feel no other lymph nodes anywhere. It is about the size of a pea, slightly squishy, and it moves around under my skin. It is completely painless. I have no other symptoms other than fatigue but that's nothing new and probably related to anxiety/depression.
Normally I wouldn't be too worried about being able to feel my lymph node. A few times in the past I've had palpable nodes - about six years ago I could even feel one under my clavicle (a more "serious" place to feel a node apparently) but it just went away. I also had one on the back of my neck near my hairline last fall that popped up and then went away. The only reason I'm concerned is that this node has been palpable for three months or more now. I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone. Doctors online have written that it is entirely normal for adults to have small lymph nodes under 1cm (mine definitely is) and then I've also read that any lymph node that you can feel for longer than a month needs to be biopsied.
Another factor in all this that makes me think that maybe I shouldn't be worried is that I have a microdermal piercing on the back of my neck that has been pretty irritated for the past few months (probably since January or so) and almost constantly has some sort of lymph discharge around it.
Essentially I'm just trying to gauge if I need to be concerned or not. I have an anxiety disorder so I'm very worried about going to the doctor and having to have a biopsy, multiple return visits, etc. that I've seen people who have a mysterious enlarged node go through online. I also am concerned about the cost of the medical procedures because I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to my health and am already in debt from a CT scan I had last year after falling and knocking myself out.
Hi! I had the same thing when I was a 22 year old healthy female with no family history of cancer-- enlarged, moveable, kinda squishy node in that area. It was a bit bigger than yours, though-- about 2.5cm, I think. Here's what I did:
-Notice enlarged node in late March
-Wait a couple of weeks, went to student health center
-Got tested for just about every disease that makes your nodes swell, twice. Eventually get diagnosed as having had mono, but it's non-active. Student Health Center nurse recommends checking in with my primary care doctor at home. Admits that yes, it could be cancer.
-Primary care doctor refers me to ENT
-ENT doesn't seem too worried, sends me to get ultrasound
-Ultrasound inconclusive, get surgical biopsy. (As needle biopsy was determined to be at risk for a false negative)
-Results come in: Papillary thyroid cancer (?!), which was weird, because the node wasn't on my thyroid (duh). Get new ultrasound, they find the primary tumor on my thyroid which was extremely small.
-Send labs to Sloan Kettering who confirm that yes, it's thyroid cancer.
-Get treated for papillary thyroid cancer, and essentially done with clean bill of health by that September.
So, in the end, could this be cancer? Yes. But luckily for you, moveable and squishy usually means benign (but not always, as my case shows). Also, the cancers that pop up there are often very treatable-- papillary thyroid cancer, Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
But I would say definitely do get it checked out, if only for the fact that it could be some sort of low lying infection that you might want to knock out.
posted by damayanti at 10:47 AM on June 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
-Notice enlarged node in late March
-Wait a couple of weeks, went to student health center
-Got tested for just about every disease that makes your nodes swell, twice. Eventually get diagnosed as having had mono, but it's non-active. Student Health Center nurse recommends checking in with my primary care doctor at home. Admits that yes, it could be cancer.
-Primary care doctor refers me to ENT
-ENT doesn't seem too worried, sends me to get ultrasound
-Ultrasound inconclusive, get surgical biopsy. (As needle biopsy was determined to be at risk for a false negative)
-Results come in: Papillary thyroid cancer (?!), which was weird, because the node wasn't on my thyroid (duh). Get new ultrasound, they find the primary tumor on my thyroid which was extremely small.
-Send labs to Sloan Kettering who confirm that yes, it's thyroid cancer.
-Get treated for papillary thyroid cancer, and essentially done with clean bill of health by that September.
So, in the end, could this be cancer? Yes. But luckily for you, moveable and squishy usually means benign (but not always, as my case shows). Also, the cancers that pop up there are often very treatable-- papillary thyroid cancer, Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
But I would say definitely do get it checked out, if only for the fact that it could be some sort of low lying infection that you might want to knock out.
posted by damayanti at 10:47 AM on June 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I had an enlarged lymph node a few years ago and my doctor gave me a blood test to be sure that it was nothing to worry about. I don't think they will jump straight to a biopsy; there are other tests (like blood tests) that can be run first. Stop trying to self-diagnose, go and see a professional.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 10:58 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by kinddieserzeit at 10:58 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Go to the doctor. They probably won't do a biopsy until after they do bloodwork and maybe put you on a round of antibiotics for the infected microdermal.
I understand your anxiety but your fears are sort of irrelevant to the actual issue at hand. Yep, you might be real sick, and you will still be real sick whether you find out or not, and eventually the issue will force itself (at a far higher cost). Or you might turn out to not be sick at all, which is an answer you cannot get without investigating or if the issue goes away, but the issue has not gone away and it is time to get an answer instead of continuing to fret about what the answer is. Not spending the money won't make it not be real.
Nobody's going to cast you out of the doctor's office if you're not "sick enough" either, which is another way that health anxiety manifests. Just go. Tell the doctor you want to be conservative with pursuing it if you want to.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:13 AM on June 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
I understand your anxiety but your fears are sort of irrelevant to the actual issue at hand. Yep, you might be real sick, and you will still be real sick whether you find out or not, and eventually the issue will force itself (at a far higher cost). Or you might turn out to not be sick at all, which is an answer you cannot get without investigating or if the issue goes away, but the issue has not gone away and it is time to get an answer instead of continuing to fret about what the answer is. Not spending the money won't make it not be real.
Nobody's going to cast you out of the doctor's office if you're not "sick enough" either, which is another way that health anxiety manifests. Just go. Tell the doctor you want to be conservative with pursuing it if you want to.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:13 AM on June 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
In the first place, how do you know this is a lymph node? I had a mobile, squishy mass in my neck and my doctor diagnosed it as a cyst after palpitating the whole region. It went away eventually. If it didn't, I would have eventually had it exised and biopsied.
"Dr. Google" is the worst thing to consult when it comes to unusual lumps, rashes, or body noises. Everything can seem like the sign of something serious. Have you thought about treatment for your long-term anxiety especially around issues of your health and body?
posted by muddgirl at 11:39 AM on June 7, 2015
"Dr. Google" is the worst thing to consult when it comes to unusual lumps, rashes, or body noises. Everything can seem like the sign of something serious. Have you thought about treatment for your long-term anxiety especially around issues of your health and body?
posted by muddgirl at 11:39 AM on June 7, 2015
If the piercing is infected and has created the lymph node swelling, well, that's pretty close to your brain, go get that checked out asap. Request tests for mono while you are there. Fatigue, depression, and swollen lymph nodes are symptoms of mono, as well as a slew of autoimmune disorders.
If you were diagnosed with diabetes and came down with herpes, you wouldn't not treat the herpes because you already have diabetes. Don't let your anxiety/depression diagnoses keep you from treating fatigue that could be caused by other things.
posted by myselfasme at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you were diagnosed with diabetes and came down with herpes, you wouldn't not treat the herpes because you already have diabetes. Don't let your anxiety/depression diagnoses keep you from treating fatigue that could be caused by other things.
posted by myselfasme at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone.
It's unclear to me if your "anyone" includes a primary care physician. That's really the first person you should consult about this. It's totally normal to be anxious about this kind of thing, but you should definitely have it checked out. It might assuage your fears to know that a primary care physician will rarely if ever perform a biopsy nowadays -- the "worst" that might happen during an initial visit will be a referral to a specialist. The best is that you find out it's no big deal and can stop worrying!
posted by telegraph at 1:46 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's unclear to me if your "anyone" includes a primary care physician. That's really the first person you should consult about this. It's totally normal to be anxious about this kind of thing, but you should definitely have it checked out. It might assuage your fears to know that a primary care physician will rarely if ever perform a biopsy nowadays -- the "worst" that might happen during an initial visit will be a referral to a specialist. The best is that you find out it's no big deal and can stop worrying!
posted by telegraph at 1:46 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
From my experience: If you have been sweated while sleeping lately, get thee to a doctor. I had Hodgkin's Disease at 25.
posted by cmiller at 2:47 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cmiller at 2:47 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Anecdotally,
I am also noticed a swollen lymph node in the same place in my early 20s. I DID have some other concerning symptoms - night sweats, weight loss, persistent cough - and my GP was sure I had lymphoma, even though my blood work looked ok.
She sent me for an ultrasound and chest CT, which were both inconclusive, so she sent me for a needle biopsy.
Showed up for the biopsy and the surgeon (?? whoever does them) decided the node was too small to biopsy.
Two years later, the node is still there, and I'm pretty sure I don't have cancer. I also have health anxiety, and I don't regret getting it checked out. Now, instead of each new symptom convincing me I'm going to die soon, I can honestly tell myself, "You probably don't have cancer."
posted by raspberrE at 7:56 PM on June 7, 2015
I am also noticed a swollen lymph node in the same place in my early 20s. I DID have some other concerning symptoms - night sweats, weight loss, persistent cough - and my GP was sure I had lymphoma, even though my blood work looked ok.
She sent me for an ultrasound and chest CT, which were both inconclusive, so she sent me for a needle biopsy.
Showed up for the biopsy and the surgeon (?? whoever does them) decided the node was too small to biopsy.
Two years later, the node is still there, and I'm pretty sure I don't have cancer. I also have health anxiety, and I don't regret getting it checked out. Now, instead of each new symptom convincing me I'm going to die soon, I can honestly tell myself, "You probably don't have cancer."
posted by raspberrE at 7:56 PM on June 7, 2015
You should have this checked out by a doctor. However, to counteract the "OMG cancer" possibility: my kid had a lymph node in that area enlarged to the size of a chocolate-malt Whopper when she was five or six. Her bloodwork was clear and she seemed otherwise healthy, so no further investigation was done. It persisted for YEARS. We mentioned it at her annual exams a couple of times, and then eventually it just quietly went back to normal on its own. So this is also a thing that can happen.
Have the bloodwork done, though, before relaxing. CBC is a useful tool.
posted by Andrhia at 8:17 PM on June 7, 2015
Have the bloodwork done, though, before relaxing. CBC is a useful tool.
posted by Andrhia at 8:17 PM on June 7, 2015
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posted by faethverity at 10:46 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]