For the past two-ish years I have had an issue with enlarged armpit lymph nodes. One or two of them in the left armpit, always there, always that side, never anywhere else. They have flared up again recently.

They come up suddenly, persist for a little while and then go away, but then they come back in a few months. They are very painful, that’s how I know they are there. I don’t think I would ever notice the lumps If it wasn’t for the pain as they aren’t huge, you have to press a bit to find them. They are definitely there though, and doctors have confirmed that. There is never any sign of illness when they crop up either, I know that is a warning sign, as lymph nodes are supposed to fight infection, but I don’t have any signs of anything they could possibly be fighting. I haven’t had a vaccine in a long time and I haven’t changed deodorant.

I have trawled the internet trying to find someone who has experienced this, but nothing I have found quite matches to my experience. I have of course found a lot of stuff about lymphoma and breast cancer and such things that I am worried about.

I have been to the doctors about them a lot, they have never been concerned due to the fact that the swelling has always gone away. However, the doctor I saw recently did refer me to get them scanned, so I am now waiting on that appointment, and in the meantime I am trying to prepare myself for what they could end up telling me