I posted in the breast cancer forum last week. I'm really confused and need advice. First let me say, I don't THINK that I have lymphoma, I just didn't know what other forum to post under. I'm sorry this is so long.
In April 2007 I went to my Family Dr for pain in the back of my neck and a feeling of something pushing on my throat and it was hard to swallow sometimes. No tests were done at that time, she gave me pain meds I think. Well, it never went away. Also, some time in November I noticed something hard on the left side of my throat. Dec. 6, 2007 I went back to my family Dr, she didn't know what the hard lump was on my throat. She sent me for an x-ray of my neck and an ultrasound of my neck. X-ray revealed evidence of muscle spasm, ultrasound found a very small cyst on thyroid. She sent me to an ENT. On Dec. 17, 2007 I saw the ENT. He said he thought the lump on my throat was an inflamed hyoid bone. He didn't think the thyroid cyst was anything to worry about. But, he put a camera through my nose and down my throat to look for reflux & look at my voice box, saw no problems there. He told me to take 2 Aleve twice a day. He also sent me for a CT of my neck. CT found thyroid normal, cyst too small to detect. Prominent lymph nodes in the submandibular, sublingual, and jugulo-gastric spaces. The largest RIGHT level 2 lymph node measures 21.4x13x7.8 mm. Largest LEFT jugulo-digrastric lymph node measures 18.5x9x8 mm. Conclusion: Mildly enlarged bilateral level 2 lymph nodes. Prominent, upper, normal size level 1 lymph nodes. The nurse that called to give me the results said that we would just watch the lymph nodes. Then, last week I found a lump in my left breast. Since I don't do regular self breast exams I don't know how long it's been there. I went back to my family dr last Friday, she sent me to an Ortho Dr for my neck, he's doing an MRI but I won't get the results back for 3 weeks. I decided with my family dr to wait til after my next menstrual cycle and if breast lump is still there we could do an ultrasound. She thought maybe it was a lymph node or a duct.
Anyway, now whatever is pressing on my throat is getting bigger and food is stuck sometimes. The lymph nodes under my chin are getting bigger, they feel like they're pressing up under my tongue. I called my dr and she said to go back to the ENT but I can't get an appt for another week. Should I just wait or try to go to another doctor?
You should go to the emerg of a hospital and have them take a look at it right away.
Clearly for whatever reason your current doctor has chosen to rule out of the possibility of Cancer...(I don't know why..its the first thing my doctor suggested were x-rays and a CT Scan followed by a biopsy.)
But under no circumstances should you just be told to "wait" this could very serious and you should see someone right away!
Thanks Bofonic and Singer for replying. I scheduled an appt with my husband's internist (sp?) for tomorrow. I had to stay home from work today because I don't feel well. Hopefully he'll figure out what is going on.
Finally, a doctor is taking action. I went to my husband's doctor today. He did blood work (which neither my family dr or the ENT had done) and he referred me to a surgeon to have a lymph node taken out and biopsied next week. Hopefully I'll get some resolution to this soon. We are planning to go on vacation to the Bahamas a week from Sunday. If I have an excisional biopsy on a cervical lymph node next week, do you think I will be ok to go on vacation a few days after that?
I'm not sure. It usually (For me anyways) took them a week to send the samples to the hospital to get the results back. Then you usually have a consultation with the Thoracic surgeon and depending on the results they may or may not refer you to an Oncologist.
As for travelling...I suppose it would depend on how long it would take for it to heal. Are the lumps still causing you a large degree of discomfort? If they still are I'd discourage any sort of travel.
