Hi there-

You seem to give good advice, so here's my situation:

I've had a lymph node on the side of my neck for at least 7 years now. Over these past 7 years I have had many health issues including: extreme hair loss, dizziness (like a disconnected, spacey feeling 24/7), brain fog, muscle pain and weakness, lower back pain and leg pain, and abdominal pains....I think thats it, oh yeah, and extreme fatigue. Anyways, over the past month, my symptoms are getting much worse. I went to the ER 4 times in 2 weeks time, they did a chest xray and ct scan with contrast--all was clear. They did a ct scan without contrast of my abdomen and pelvis--all was clear. They did a pelvic ultrasound--all was clear. I've had tons of blood tests done. I also just had a MRI of my lumbar spine, but dont know the results of that yet. Over the years my thyroid has always come back fine, but this last time it came back a little low, so Im getting a thyroid uptake scan in a few weeks, along with some blood work getting rechecked.
Anyways, back to my lymph node---one of the ER docs said I should probably get it biopsied sometime, so I went to my internal medicine doc, and she sent me to a surgeon, and he said there is nothing to worry about, I went for a second opinion to another surgeon, and he said the same thing. Its about the size of a pea--about 4-5mm (one of the docs did an u/s on it and thats what he said). Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesnt, its just kind of there. I stress about it a lot. Do you think I should be concerned anymore about it, or with all of the tests i've had done--its possibly something else? Am I just paranoid? Any help greatly appreciated!

schao

Also, one more thing.....
on the ct scan they did of my chest and pelvis, on the report they put "multiple vascular calcifications noted", but below that when the radiologist writes their impression, it wasnt even mentioned there. Do you know what vascular calcifications are? My blood pressure and cholesterol are both fine, so im not sure. Thanks.

schao

It sounds like over all that your doctors have been thorough. On the vascular calcifications, It sounds like they are describing athererosclerosis which is the normal plaques that begin to stick to blood vessels from birth to old age. Different people accumulate this at different rates of progression. The lymph node size you described is not very large and there are a lot of aches and pains that some people have simply because their bodies do not make the right balance of dopamines to serotonin( these are pain killers our body make naturally. Some people have cyclic pain simply because they are more sensitive to pain than others are. The scientists have not quite figured it all out, but it is well known that over the counter pain killers can start a cycle of pain if taken when not needed or taken for a prolonged period of time if they are needed. If I were in your shoes I would monitor my pain in a pain journal and if it gets worse in one area than in another, that might help you to find out what is really causing the problem. The lymph node would have to be biopsied to say whether or not it is reactive or something worse. Good luck to you on finding out the answers to your problems.

Thank you so much Merimac for your reply. We'll see how things go.
Have a good day!

schao