Too many biopsies! - Lymphomas Message Board

nellie99 · 09-08-2003, 05:57 PM

Wondering if anyone else out there has had to have several lymph nodes biopsied, and if so, did it end up being something serious?

My son has been told today that he will have to have another lymph node biopsied. He had one a few years ago, two last year, and now this one. The preliminary report for the last biopsy was indicative of Hodgkins, but after three weeks of testing, they couldn't give a definitive diagnosis of anything. I really don't want to keep going through this for every lymph node that swells. He is only 9 years old and a little sick of CT scans, ultrasounds, and surgeries! It just seems pointless to keep going through it when he hasn't had any other problems and every node has come back alright. Couldn't it just be that he has lymph nodes that are overreactive or something?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

keb20 · 09-08-2003, 07:04 PM

Iam sorry for your sons complications. Sometimes lymph nodes will swell due to either colds/infections. They will swell with fluids used to fend off these germs and a lot of times they do not drain properly. That may be the cause of these swelled lymph nodes. Many times the swelling will go down over a period of time. This time frame can be a week, a month and sometimes several years. If the next biopsy comes back negative. I would probably not continue to remove more lymphnodes as they are somewhat important to the human immune system. (iam not a doctor or in a medical profession this is just my own honest opinion) Good luck and i hope that there is nothing wrong.