23m Nervous about Swollen Lymph nodes for 5 months

[mjm2121]

Married 23y.o. white male here, athletic, in good general health. 6'3 250lbs

At the beginning of August, about 4 1/2 months ago i had a pain in my left neck shoulder area i noticed when i would raise my arm. After feeling around I felt what turned out to be an enlarged lymph node in my left lower neck. Everything on line of course pointed me to cancer for that specific node. However, I did have a bad head cold a few days after I noticed it with bad pflem and stuff.

After getting back from vacation, 2 weeks later it was still there so went to the doctor. They said it felt normal, but did a chest xray, and this came back normal. They then prescribed me antibiotics for 2 weeks and came back and node was still there. So the doctor went ahead and scheduled an appointment for me to see an internal medicine specialist.

At this point a month and a half had gone by, Still felt the same, but had noticed another node directly below the one on my lower left neck, and another swollen node in the same general place as these two on the right side. At the specialist, she did a ultrasound/sonagram? on the nodes and measured them at a little less than a cm and told me that i should take another 2 months before coming back and they look benign.

2 months went by, I have noticed that there are small pea sized nodes swollen on each side below my ears are a little tender. But i dont know if these have just gotten larger or are the same size.

I do have anxiety which makes me nervous and a grandfather that passed away from Non Hodgkins Lymphoma a few years ago.

Last, I went back into the doctor when it would have been over 2 months. I didnt know if i should go back to the specialist, so i went to my general practicioner at school health center. She felt my nodes, and said they all still felt no bigger than 1 cm on my neck and the ones by my ears are just very small pea sized.

I have had no other "main" symptoms: no night sweats, no weight loss, no bad fatigue

I guess my question is, thoughts? Should I still be worried? Should I go to another doctor?

Any advice or comments would be helpful

[Ken_PA]

I know that tenderness, borders etc are talked about at large. From my experience with a family member, those things were meaningless. Dividing is different though, so maybe watch for that. Also for sudden increase in size. Since you now have done a self-inventory of bumps, you can now know if more appear. But my *guess* is you are fine.


Stress? Sure, that can weaken immunity and result in chronic/recurrent infection.

[mjm2121]

Thank you for your response.

I am not sure if they are increasing in number or if they have been there and just didnt know.  I never was really aware of them until i felt the first one. So I really just dont know.

They are tender from time to time and none of them are hard, if that helps.

I am also under a lot of stress with graduate school if that makes a difference?

[Ken_PA]

the majority of various bumps are not cancer. They might not even be lymph nodes, but can be lipomas or sebaceous cysts instead.

Also, I think you'd want to find out what type of NHL your grandfather had. Then you can research how heritable that particular type is. It might not have a genetic association at all, or might be associated only with advanced age.

In the end, only biopsy can tell for sure. Docs are reluctant to do biopsy, because bumps usually are not cancer.

Do you think the bumps are increasing in number, or is it maybe that they were always there but you've just been discovering more because you're looking more?