Starting treatement Fri - worried about lymph nodes

Hello everyone.

I am starting treatment Friday with Pegintron and riba. I am genotype 1b. Don't have my stats yet, will have them on Friday. Many delays in starting treatment so I am a bit tired of the whole thing, but now that I am facing it, I am nervous.

Anyway, one of the delays was to remove a axillary lump which turned out benign...thank goodness! But I do have swolled lymph nodes under my ears and on the jawline. They are not tender or hard, but more cushy. I also have small eruptions around them that never go away.

I have brought this up to my DRs (and I have quite a few), went to a hematologist and have been imaged more times than Angelina Jolie!!! Nothing shows up.

Has anyone experienced swollen lymph nodes like this? Should I insist on further investigation or should I just proceed with treatment and hope for the best?

Thanks

[DougV]

While not tx related I just went through this with my son.  Go see an ENT.  Turned out his was just a minor infection deep inside sinus cavity, antibiotics combined with predrisone took care of it is short order.  I'd suggest getting it dealt with before tx as your healing ability will likely be reduced.

Doug

[zendust07]

I was alreay put on a round of antibiotics just in case it was an infection and there was no response. My blood work does not show an infection. :P

[genedog]

WOW, lots of new people here where are all of you from?

[DoubleDose]

Try to determine if the lymph nodes in question are your parotid glands, or salivary glands.  If so, it is fairly common for people with HCV to develop swollen facial glands, as part of the 'sjogren's syndrome-like' symptoms that can be part of the disease.  There are lots of articles on this HCV symptom, and if you use google or yahoo you will learn more about it.  The treatment may indeed help ultimately reduce or eliminate this 'lymph node' swelling, especially if you eradicate the virus.  Often HCV causes a range of salivary abnormalities, including swollen glands and lymph nodes, dry eyes and mouth, gum and teeth problems, etc.  You may have this syndrome.

The parotids, by the way, are on the sides of the face, directly in front of each ear, along the jawline, and down to the 'point' or angle of the jaw..  If you research 'sjogren's syndrome' you will find additional description of this set of symptoms.

DoubleDose

[Myown]

yes, i have a swollen lymph node, by my gland on my throat. And now i have little bumps on other side in front of ear, down from ear lobe on jaw line.

The Ent said,"oh yeah, I see it, if it gets any bigger, make sure you come back to see me." My other doctor said, she sees it, but that I am stressing over everything too much. I'm tired of doctors.

I worry about lymphoma, because i had read about a connection of hepc and low grade lymphoma. You can do a search and read about it. I am about ready to go to bed or I would look for the article for you to read. I may be worrying too much. Menopause makes you think you have every disease known to man and the unknown ones too.

I can't remember if I told my hep doc about the lump, maybe I did and this might be why she is doing some extra blood tests.

if you find out anything, post it and I'll do the same. take care

[jmjm530]

MYOwn: The Ent said,"oh yeah, I see it, if it gets any bigger, make sure you come back to see me."
----------------------------
A date told me that once :)

Now, look, stop worrying about Lymphomaniacs and stuff. Treatment is enough to worry about :)

-- Jim

[zendust07]

Thank you every one...I am getting a clearer picture on how to handle this. And DoubleDose, your response really helped.

Now, on to Friday....I'll let you all know how I make out.

This is the best forum...I deeply appreciate all the support that you guys give to one another.

[DougV]

Same way with my son.  First round of antibiotics-zip.  Labs, especially white dead normal, no signs at all.  Throat culture, normal.  Mono-spot negative.  Oh do you have a cat?  Cat scratch can cause same symptoms you describe, that is another simple blood test but other then ENT no one thought of it.  Anyway ENT, using fiber optic scope looked into sinus cavity checking to see if adnoids (sp?) had not yet atrophied and were infected.  That wasn't the issue but she did find signs of minor infection deep in the cavity.  Put him on Augmenten 875mg QID and one of the predisone packs, six then five then four....then one per day.  Within three days swelling was gone.  According to ENT most common causes for symptoms you describe are infection in throat, nasal passages, ear, or skin infection in affected lymph area.  Skin of course is obvious, usually throat is obvious, but not always, ear and nasal passages because they are so confined rarely have outward symptoms, either visible or by seeing elevated white counts.

I'm sure not saying that's what it is, but it's worth checking on.  Lymph nodes are basically the bodies garbage can and they do not swell without reason.  The mere fact it is swelling indicates some problem and tx can both hide the problem and reduce chances of it healing on its own.  I did tx, encourage tx, but if it was me I'd sure get every physical issue I had dealt with, as much as possible, before I started doing tx.  Putting it off a week or two won't have significant impact in the future, but not putting it off could potentially cause another and perhaps even major issue, prevent healing, and ultimately potentially force you to quit treatment.  

What can I say, I'm an old worry wart who thinks sometimes, even though I rarely apply this, better safe then sorry.  Sorry for being long winded.

Doug

[Myown]

ha ha ha lol lol you are tooooooooooo funny

[amirtracy]

Hi. I've got a swollen gland in my pelvis/thigh area and also soft tissue swelling above my collarbone. dr. told me it was symptomatic of hcv- had every test run, still nothing. the swelling comes and goes which is a good sign...i've decided i've got enough to worry about w/ treatment and am hoping eventually, if tx is a success, it will just go away. best of luck to you.   tracy

[GrandmaA]

Be careful of taking prednisone. It is a steroid. One lady cleared the virus, then took prednisone for lupus and the virus came back and she had to go through tx. again.

[NYgirl]

I wish I had a swollen salivary gland.......unlike most people in the world I did NOT take the advice to get my teeth taken care of PRE-tx.  My cavity turned root canal turned - as of yesterday - I look like Marlon Brando on my left side ......  it just gets MORE fun as time goes.

Got to call a dentist for an antibiotic and get this sucker pulled ASAP cause it's hurtin big.

So just a reminder - INTERFERON ROTS YOUR TEETH AS SURE AS HEROIN OR ANY OTHERR SUBSTANCE type thing.......so have them taken care of BEFORE you find out like me, that the little 48 weeks has turned into a year and a half on the stuff and you need five root canals and have to have a tooth pulled...instead of a couple of fillings.

[DougV]

This is another reason this issue should be dealt with prior to starting tx.