Lymph nodes

[Ryco]

My son produced a small lump under his left ear and where his jaw bone connects, over 12 hours it swelled and the swelling went down his neck.  The lump is hard and has gotten bigger.  I took him to the hospital where they did blood work and an ultrasound of the area.  The blood work came back fine, showing no infection of any kind, the ultrasound showed his lymph nodes were swollen, one was 2.1 cm.  They just said to keep an eye on it and if it gets red or he gets a fever then bring him back.  Other than that they said to follow up with my family doctor later in the week.  Any advice?

[nurse12hr]

I'd say that you were given very reasonable advice.  See your doctor in a week, sooner if the lump is enlarging or you start to see red or hot areas.

Hope everything is ok.  Kids can get swollen lymph nodes from time to time, sometimes you never know what caused it. My youngest had a HUGE lump under his arm when he was about 4--big as a small plum--blood work and everything was ok.  It wouldn't go away, so we had to have it removed and biopsied, which just showed signs of an old infection in a lymph node.

But I know how worried you are.  I was terrified.  Let us know what you find out.

[cheekymonkey73]

Our lymph nodes swell when an infection is present in the body, be it strep throat, a small woumd, or a kidney infection.  Unfortunately, the swelling doesm't necessarily decrease when the infection clears.  The bloodwork your son had probably had a white blood cell count included in it, and sounds like it was normal.  (White blood cell count is a more accurate way of detecting an infection in the body.) So, the advice sounds quite reasonable.  Good luck!