NY 1009

Stacy,
it's normal to be nervous when a person finds a swollen lymph node.
and lymphoma's don't always have symtoms. people who DO have symtoms are called B symptoms. hodgkins lymphoma's usually have symtoms, but the 30 other different types of non hodgkin lymphoma's can be symptom free.
I've met so many people on line with lymphoma's and ALOT of them did not have any symptoms and all of their blood work were normal too.
you can not rely on blood work to detect lymphoma's.
Only a biopsy can know for sure.

stress and anxiety can make a person feel that they have a terminal illness,.
people with GAD which stands for general anxiety disorder is a physical illness and not just a mental health problem.
it causes really problems in the body and can make a person sick.
they feel more pain than others and are more sensitive to stimuli than others, there fore they feel more aches and pains and because the mind is constantly worrying about things, which can raise the blood pressure and put the body in a constant fight or flight response, where the adrenaline is always running on high, can really injure the body's system.

it's hard not to be offended when you go to multiple drs' who can't find anything wrong and yet the person who's sick know's they're sick and the dr's don't have a diagnosis that jumps right out at them, so they label it "stress".

you hire the dr's, so if you feel they're not helping you and if they're just making you feel like you're a hypochondriac because you're a woman, by all means find a new doctor.
you hire the doctor, they don't hire us. we pay for their services so have all the right to find another dr who will listen to us and not make us feel like we're crazy.
it's your body and you know you're body best. you are your best advocate and no one else is.
there's been so many mis diagnoses because doctors tell patients, "oh it's nothing' don't worry, or "its' just a cyst" or "lymphoma's are very rare.
lymphoma's are not rare like they used to be and there is an increase double fold in this country. for non hodgkins lymphoma's. there's less hodgkins.
they dont' know exactly why there's such an increase either.
they're doing studies on it and have learned alot in such a short amount of time.

also, the protocol, the first step after they find a lump is first send the patient to an ENT, depending on where the lump is, and then the next thing they do is put the person on an antibiotic to see if there's an infection going on. They also do a cat scan or MRI and THEN if the lump has not gone down after the antibiotic treatment, then they consider doing a biopsy.

malignant nodes don't have to be huge to be malignant. any node over 1cm size can be. dr's become concerned over lymphnode size when they're over 1cm.
normally scans aren't able to detect 1cm size lymphnodes, so if they're detectable on the scan, then usually they're larger than 1cm.

also, very thin people can feel their nodes better than others. you can feel them mostly in the neck, the underarms and groin.
it's common in thin people to feel them there.

I wish you the best outcome and understand how horrible you're feeling. I too am feeling sick and have for quite sometime. and I too have GAD like the other person. I've been on medication for it now for 3 years and it's not true that depression can cause your nodes to swell. I've never ever heard that or read that anywhere.
you should be careful though what you read on the internet because it can scare the living day lights out of you.
it will only make you feel worst. so try not to read too much about lymphoma's until you're diagnosed with it.

I do it too, so I know.

best wishes,

Linda