I don't know what it is or what category but here are all my symptoms?

[joanabanana321]

About three years ago I came back from camp and noticed a swollen, palpable lymph node under my left armpit. I waited a few weeks and when it didn't go away I went to the doctor. She said that because it wasn't big and it was palpable it was nothing to worry about. A few months later I got the flu so naturally some lymph nodes swelled in my throat. One remained swollen. So now, 2 years later I still have and armpit and throat lymph nodes swollen. They have not grown, and they may have shrunk but def not grown. They're easily palpable but are not soft if you press on them. I am 16 years oldand i'm terrified I have cancer????? I have something the size of an M&M one inch down my butt crack that is very palpable, I don't know if it is a lymph node or what. It has shrunk a little from when it first came about one and a half years ago. It hurt when it first came but now it doesn't hurt. I just got back from DC and woke up 4 days ago with nausea and no appetite and have been like this these past fourdays. I have lost 4 pounds now, that's probably because of my not eating as much though. The nausea is not terrible and it gets better as the day progresses, and my loss of appetite waxes and wanes. I don't know if this is related to the lymph nodes, as I have been in the metro and public places and bathrooms while I was on my trip. I'm just really paranoid and I will probably end up going to the doctor soon if these symptoms don't leave soon but should I be scared????? Please hele me! Is it possible for lymph nodes to remain swollen for a longgggg time? (I've touched them a lot, i dont know if that does anything?). I don't have any other symptoms except for some minor back pain but that's probably because I have a bit of a slouch (bad I know).... But yeah I'm a teenage girl and paranoid about cancer so please please help me??!?!?!?! Also i have a weird palpable long thing on my left elbow that is more palpable if i bend my arm, and sometimes both pinkies in my hands get slightly numb. i recently also have been getting frequent chills, but they aren't following through (i.e. i keep having to shake my body to make them go away. i have no fever, no pain or other symptoms other than those described above). lastly, for the past almost 2 years i've had a ball-like lump at the base of my skull immediately to the left of my spine. it's sensitive to touch, not palpable, pretty hard, feels like a muscle knot of some sort but sometimes it's on my left and others on my right, the size of a cherry, some days it's more pronounced than others. i don't feel it if my neck is straight facing forward but i do if i tilt my neck to the side...please help me i am paranoid about cancer i'm 16 i don't want to die?!?!?!?! and i don't want to be so scared. should i be scared? what could i have?

[bip]

RELAX HUN, I would get a 2sd opnion if ur so scared if u went to the doctors says ur kk then ur fine but i know   its hard, go to undiangosed forum an write there they will help u 2

[ggreg]

I think you should see a dermatologist.  These lumps sound like ordinary cysts, some people are prone to them, you may have someone else in your family that gets them.  The dermatologist can check each and every bump you have, and he'll be able to remove them for you, and he will also find out if you do have cancer, because they biopsy all the bumps they take off.  For the one on your neck, he might refer you to a neurologist to take off, but let him decide that when he sees you.  So, make an appointment and go to one.  I personally think the doc who first saw you for the lymph bump was not as cautious as I think a doc should be, those lymph nodes really have to be watched if they swell up like that.  So, consider another doc to refer you to the dermatologist, or really, you can just go straight to one without referral, since this is such a common issue.

[joanabanana321]

thank you! so the one on my elbow that I feel when I bend it, it's long and hard but palpable...is there any chance it could be a lymph node or not? It's flat, isn't visible but the fact that I have it on one arm and not the other scares me. On my left side of the neck I have the exact same thing--palpable long and flat but it's not on my right side of the neck?

[ggreg]

With lymphs, it makes no difference which side of the body it occurs, it doesn't have to occur on both sides of the body silmultaneously.  Sometimes one side of the body's lymphatic system will be affected and not the other; you can get a swelling in a lymph node on, say, the left side of the neck from a toothache, and another swelling in the right armpit from a lung infection.  There are hundreds of lymphs, they are interconnected and go thru the whole body sort of like blood vessels and nerves do, but in the arm, they sort of travel towards the inside, so your elbow swelling is more likely a cyst.  

By the way, the majority of skin cysts do not break thru the skin, rather they lie just underneath it, in case you were thinking it was an eruption.  There are lots of layers of skin, and within it are ducts for lubricant, and those can get stopped up and make a bump.  And you may have both lymph swellings and cysts, for example, a swollen lymph in one armpit, and a bunch of cysts in other places, which is what I think is going on with you.  A bump also might not be either a lymph node or a cyst; it could be a lipoma, which is a nonlife-threatening fatty sort of swelling that usually gets bigger and bigger, which the one on the back of your neck affecting your spine sort of sounds like the ones I've seen.  In addition, the lymph nodes you had that swelled up from flu, they can get pus in there that hardens, even tho the illness is gone.  

This is how come you need to go to a dermatologist, so he can check you out and see what you got, and clear them all up, and he can biopsy anything he removes.  See, I get cysts, and I've had them round, I've had them oblong, smaller and small, on all parts of my body.  I've also had lymph nodes swell, and that I can always tell because the area hurts and they're usually in my neck.  Bumps in the armpit can be sinister, which is how come I didn't like the way your doc handled that, altho as I said, it can be from a simple lung infection and not necessarily an indicator of the spread of cancer.  And I've seen lipomas, they sort of make me think of big bubbles of water, altho no water is in there.  So, I'm telling you everything from my own experiences, and I hope these descriptions sort of help you understand all the wild and crazy stuff you can get related to your skin.

So, hope you will go ahead and see a dermatologist, let him address all this stuff for you.  Plus that one in the armpit really does need looking at by a diff doc than the one who looked at it before, thus all the more reason to go to a dermatologist.  Do tell me you will go to one real soon!

[joanabanana321]

Thanks! My mom is making an appointment for me for tomorrow. Last question, do cysts go away alone? Because I've had like the one on my elbow for over a year but it hasn't shrunk or grown that I noticed...I have a new little palpable lump formed about an inch under the other one on my anus along the spine. Neither have grown, the slightly bigger one has been here for over a year, the other for just a few days or weeks and it was sore when it came but it's no longer sore but it's still palpable.
I just don't want big surpises at the doctor tomorrow, you know? Is there a chance it's malignancy or can I relax? I know I shouldn't diagnose myself kn the Internet but i kind ofwant to know a bit what to expect? Thank you so much for your help.  

[ggreg]

Cysts usually stick around, altho occasionally they'll shrink or even go away on their own.  The reason I do not think it is cancer, is because I recognize your descriptions of what you got, and they sound so much like the skin irregularities I've had and seen, that I don't think so, with the exception of the one in your armpit.... however, since you've had that one for three years, you'd be a whole lot sicker and other symptoms would have appeared long before now if you had cancer.  You're just the type of person who gets these annoying cysts.  I know, they're scary, but at least next time you get a bump like that, you'll know exactly what's going on, and you'll just hope it doesn't get so big that they've got to take it off, like they've done mine... I have stitches in all sorts of places on my body, and I'm almost 60, so it definitely wasn't cancer.