I too have a swollen lymph node in the neck...been bothering me for months. I have a cold now which is making it worse and the referred pain is huring my ear so went to ENT. He basically said it wasn't that big but would do a CT scan. Now I'm freaking out about that. The thing that is in the back of head really bothering me is that I wake up almost every night sweating. Not like full body sweating but the back of my neck is sweaty everytime I wake up. So now I'm convinced I have cancer! Really I'm turning into a hypocondriac. Go to the ENT I would say. He said I could wait and see or have the test. I was like yeah I'll take the test...duh I don't want to just sit on cancer and look back and think I decided to take the wait and see approach. So I guess we'll see in a couple weeks.
Since you have seen doctors and they are not concerned AND have no other associated symptoms I would not worry anymore. Pay attention and make sure that the node does not get any bigger but stop the stress to yourself. I went through the same worring so I understand!
The sore throat and lower back pain have been the only other symptoms. I will occasionally have an itch, but it hasnt been anything noticable. No night sweats, no fever, some fatigue, but it is more of a depressed type (because i have been worrying), I havent been doing something and decided that i needed to rest.
I was a mess for a while. Always on the internet looking up symptoms, etc. Then I went to my ENT and he said it was nothing. It would need to be the size of a grape for it to have lymphoma. I also had a full CBC that came out perfect. I finally convinced myself that I did not have any symptoms and I needed to stop the worrying. I still pay attention to it but I am not enveloped by it anymore only because I will not allow myself to be. By now, we both would be experiencing systemic symptoms if it was cancer.
how did you finally get over it. I have periods that i can ignore it, but them something happens, my neck feel stiff or i accidentally touch it, and i am back online reading the same stuff that basically tells me i needed it removed.
I too have had a small node in my neck for 7 months. I have been through the "freeking out" especially after reading things on the internet about Lymphoma. Do you have any other symptoms; fatigue, drentching night sweats, low grade fever, unintentional weight loss, itching, just not feeling well? If not, then I would not worry about it. You mentioned that you constantly touch the node. All you are doing is irritating it. Nodes are very, very sensitive and take a while to go down. Since you have been irritating it, it could actually take 6 months to go down. I still feel for mine, but very gently. You are probably alright, try to relax......
Debbie