Ongoing lymph nodes in 15 year old

Hi all, 

I have been lurking on here since my son noticed a swollen lymph node in his neck in January of this year. We have been to the GP, once in February, once in March and then again in April. This was due to the first lymph node not going down and me noticing a couple more behind his ear. They are all on the same side. 

The GP was very reassuring and felt they were completely normal and no further investigations were needed. Yesterday my son showed me another swollen node next to the original one. It is a bigger than a pea but not as big as a marble. The first node is around a marble size and the ones near the ear, one is marble size and one pea sized. All fairly hard. But none of grown any bigger or changed at all. 

I have made a GP appointment which is not for 2 weeks but we will try each day to get an earlier one. he does seem fine in himself, he did have a cold two weeks ago which has gone so not sure if this new node is to do with that. And he does have itchy skin which I know is a symptom to look out for, although he has had this since he was around 2 years old so this is not new for him. He doesn’t suffer from recurrent infections or fatigue or anything that I’d class as a worrying symptom. 

I guess I am just looking to see if anyone else has lymph nodes that have behaved like this? I am a nurse myself but unfortunately all common sense goes out the window when it’s your own child! 

Thank you so much. 

  • Hi LHodge1010, 

    You are so right when you say that all common sense does indeed go out of the window when it's your own child!  I hope that you will hear from the experiences of others here who have experienced lymph nodes that behaved in a similar way and that it will reassure you to read from the experiences of others here. 

    You did well to go to the GP when you noticed all these lymph nodes changes and additional lymph nodes that needed examination. It's always a good idea to flag these changes with your GP and you could also try getting a second opinion just for complete peace of mind that this is nothing to worry about. 

    I hope that you get some reassurance when you see the GP in 2 weeks' time. Don't hesitate to mention the itchy skin even though he has had it for a long time - perhaps the doctor can also suggest something that will help with that. 

    Keeping everything crossed for you that it is confirmed that this is nothing to worry about and that these lymph nodes will eventually go down and it all gets better for him.

    Best wishes, 

    Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator