Hello I’m a complete newbie to this forum thing so bear with me! 
(I am 23F for context)
I am so desperate for answers & frustrated! 

I have been really unwell for the past 14 months roughly with numerous symptoms and a variety of diagnosis’.

It started in Jan 2025 when I had swelling & pain in my Lft armpit & chest area which eventually prompted the GP to refer me to the breast clinic. The ultrasound there came back ‘normal’ but said there was “dense glandular tissue present”. The doctor also commented on how he could feel nodules in the armpit and chest area but put this down to my age. (This swelling is still present to this day). I was also concerned because I was having random sharp stabbing pain in the chest area also but seeing as everything came back ‘okay’ didn’t think to much more of it.

Then in April 2025, I began having headaches completely out of nowhere. (I’ve never been the type to have headaches so this was completely out of the blue). It was a combination of pressurised headaches that would be worse in the mornings or after lying down and also migraine type headaches (also with a sharp stabbing pain that would hit me out of nowhere). I’m still having these headaches to this very day (Feb 2026) and they are being treated as raised intracranial pressure headaches combined with migraines but the doctors still don’t know what the cause of the headaches is. I had an MRI last May that found a lesion and then in the MRI I had a month later with contrast this lesion gone. I also had a lumbar puncture last June and my opening pressure was slightly elevated and when the fluid was taken off it took away all my symptoms for a short while. I was then started on meds which worked initially.

Then in December 2025, my meds for the headaches stopped working and the headaches got worse and worse. To the point where I was having issues with memory and word recall and irritably and walking and balance.

I had blood tests in the January and they showed I had low Hb, low WBC, low HCT, raised total protein & globulins and ESR of 17 (which is slightly raised). So the GP repeated them and they showed pretty much the same as well as a ferritin of 10. (Meaning I was/am anaemic).

Around this time I also started to notice I was getting very sweaty at night so I started to track my temps which were up and down but stayed within normal range the majority of the time. I also had been extremely exhausted for months (since around the March/April time) but put that down to what had been going on with the headaches but around the time as the sweatiness at night this exhaustion got even worse to the point where I was/still am having 4/5 hour naps in the afternoon as I can barely keep my eyes open (bearing in mind I’m currently signed off from work at the moment due to the headaches and I also have a physical disability so this is excessive even for me). I had also noticed that my neck was noticeably swollen on the Lft side but again thought maybe I was coming down with an illness so just monitored it.

i had noticed that I’d been losing some weight quite quickly (11kg since July - which is even more concerning given the context of being signed off work & having reduced mobility).

Then I found the lump… it was just the one small one on the side of my neck on the Lft side just smaller than a pea. Squishy but firm at the same time and painless.
I was obviously very concerned given my symptoms & my blood results and now finding a lump so I went to the GP. She said the lump was pea-sized. They suspected glandular fever - even though I didn’t have a temperature or any symptoms of glandular fever or any virus or infection so said to have a blood test and monitor the lump.

i went back to the GP after the weekend as I felt like this lump had got bigger over the weekend and I thought I could feel another one near my collarbone area. Also, the night sweats were getting a lot more intense and there was a lot of pressure around my throat area and my chest area. I had my blood tests the following day and received my results a couple of days later at another appointment with a completely different doctor again. Glandular fever was negative. So I went to this appointment with the intention of wanting to be referred on the 2ww haems pathway. The GP did refer me but did maintain that it still was likely viral. I still hadn’t had a temperature or any viral symptoms and the lump was firm and painless. She also told me from my blood test I had earlier that week that my ESR had gone to 39! (So it had gone up from 14 to 39 in only a couple of weeks). Everything else on my bloods was pretty much the same as the other two tests.

i saw the Haematologist 3 days later who said he could see the swelling in my neck from across the room! (He didn’t examine me though) he decided to send me for more in depth blood tests and a CT scan and said if the scan found any lumps that were bigger than 1cm then they would biopsy. I had those blood tests that same day. I had the CT scan the following day.

since my scan, the lump on my neck has doubled if not tripled in size and there are smaller lumps dotted around it almost like a ‘cluster’. I have also found a lump on the right side of my neck at the base of the neck/above the collarbone that is about pea-sized (again firm and painless). I also ended up in A&E last night because of sharp pain in my chest as well as the chest and throat pressure as this significantly increased. (The sharp pain is random and it’s the exact same as the pain I had in Jan 2025 with the armpit/chest swelling). I also had that same sharp pain in my upper/mid back. The ED doctor told me that from my haems blood tests she could see that my ESR was 29. She also examined me and agreed she could feel this big sort of lumpiness in the left side and the pea-sized one above the right collarbone. Then today when I woke up I had a sharp ache just below my ribs on the left side. 
i saw the GP today (the same one that did my Haem referral) and she showed me my CT report which only seemed to find ‘reactive nodes’ in the neck (where I originally had the first lump). Of course this is reassuring but it doesn’t really explain my symptoms??? It also doesn’t correspond with the other lump that I have now found on the other side in the collarbone area either. The GP today did try to re-route back to viral theory because the scan report obviously said ‘reactive lymph nodes’ but they will say that regardless of the reason won’t they??? At this point I have had these ‘reactive lymph nodes’ for almost 7 weeks and they are growing as time goes on (and I’m discovering more) and of course they are firm and painless. The GP also tried to say that I had no evidence of inflammation in my body which is “a good thing” but my ESR has been 17, 14, 39, 29. When I pointed this out she quickly changed topic…

I am completely out of my mind of what to think about all of this, I just want answers and to feel well again. Of course I don’t want it to be lymphoma but if it is, i want to know sooner rather than later and start treatment. The same as if it turns out to be anything else because the sooner I can start the treatment for whatever is causing this then the sooner I can feel better and my body can recover.