Tender back of head (possibly lymph nodes) after drinking

[Rowenmelanie]

I went to a pool party yesterday and drank vodka (usually just a beer girl), and I was incredibly drunk by the evening. I was with friends all evening and slept at the house we had been at. When I woke up this morning, the back of my head (starting just above my hairline and going up about two inches) is very, very tender. When I gently touch it, it almost feels like two circular swollen areas about two inches in diameter. I have never had this happen before and I'm really freaked out. I was with them pretty much every moment and they said I never fell or banged my head on anything. Is this an after-effect from drinking so much? I've been reading things about lymph nodes reacting kind of like this to alcohol when you have lymphoma. What do you think is going on? Should I be concerned?

[Rowenmelanie]

Thank you so much! I hadn't thought about the tendons, it could definitely be that as well. I'm sure I was in such a deep sleep, I wouldn't have probably even moved out of an uncomfortable position. I'll rest it and see how long it stays like this

[Ken_PA]

Glad to have been of some help. Good luck. (Avoid NSAIDs, of course, because of combined liver toxicity.)

[Rowenmelanie]

I read quite a lot of threads and they all seem to talk about the lymph nodes reacting immediately to the alcohol. I felt fine all day and didn't have any sensation of pain until I woke up. I also have a fair amount of memory about an hour before bed and on, and don't recall having any soreness then. I also think if I was starting to have enough cognitive function to form memories again, I probably would remember if I hit my head at that point. So while I can't be sure, I do feel fairly certain. I also don't have any sort of headache, which I would expect if I smacked my head on something hard enough to cause 1/3 of my head to be tender. I just don't know :/

[Ken_PA]

"reacting immediately"
Also, I don't think that node reaction requires a large amount of alcohol anyway - so if you were susceptible, the effect would have turned up before now.

Btw, AFAIK the mechanism isn't really elucidated (whether in HL or otherwise), though probably in most cases is associated with vasodilation.

Plus, are the two areas raised as a swollen node would be? Or flat, as in a contusion or even a bug bite.  Round or bean/oval shaped? Two inches up from hairline is not a typical location for nodes, though at the hairline or just below is. Two inches is beyond the size that a cervical node can stretch to like that - and it would take much larger for a cancer to get that size.

Are they symmetrically located? Possibly where tendons attach to back of skull, injured from sleeping with head in a bad position?

Probably it's best to repeat the experiment on another day :)

Also, I'd read a bit on Asian flush syndrome just to be aware of a possibly related mechanism.

[Ken_PA]

Hi, I'd first want to be absolutely sure that you hadn't banged your head, even though no one saw anything.

Then I'd use the "search this community" box to find the several long threads that discuss nodes reacting to alcohol. That's certainly not always due to Hodgkins Lymphoma. Unfortunately, such an overly alarming impression is gotten by reading many websites, even well established ones.