Hello angie 

your not alone , I have a swollen lymph node on my neck it's been there a good 8 years if not more , I have never had any signs or symptoms, I have had it checked a couple of times but the doctors are not concerned at all, they think it just never fully shrunk after a bad infection. 
 

I do keep a eye on it incase it ever grows or changed but so far it hasn't. 
 

hope this has helped 

leeanne xx

Hi Leeanne.

That's really helpful, and has made me feel better about it.

Thank you very much.

Angie

Just an update really.

I had the ultrasound today. The chap wasn't very forthcoming and it was a pretty lonely experience, and I was quite scared. 

It's not a node, apparently. I thought it was; my GP thought it was. He said it's a mass, but he wouldn't commit to any other information and said it needed further investigation. So I have to ring the doctor in about a week and I'll begiven an appointment for a biopsy. I asked what sort (FNA/excisional) and he wouldn't say.

What I can tell from the screen and from what he said: it's about 15x9mm, seems well defined; homogenous (?) so I think the same sort of look all the way through it; it's an isolated mass, so he didn't see any others. Also it had a great deal of vascular activity on doppler, and having looked that all up...

well the size is good. The size is low risk for malignancy. But the vascular bit isn't good at all.

I came out of it more upset than when I went in; the hospital was empty, there was nobody around. I think the worst thing was asking questions and not being offered an answer. Just nothing.

I actually said to him, are you able to tell me that it probably isn't cancer? And he wouldn't do that.

So I'm not sure where to go from here. It could be a benign or malignant soft-tissue growth but  there seem to be hundreds of different sorts, and I don't know where to begin. I'm assuming for the time being that it's probably bad.

Anyway, all the prepraratory worrying was probably quite useful in the end because it wasn't a total shock and I did just about make it through the scan without losing it. I'm not sure to what degree I might lose it now; I'm autistic, and depend on knowing things, and can never read between the lines. So people not telling me things feels awful.

Any thoughts welcome, but as ever thank you just for being there and  reading this waffle if you managed to get to the end.

AK x

Sorry... I don't suppose anyone is around. The children are all at school, and I've hardly slept and haven't eaten at all since yesterday. Properly freaking out.

I rang the doctor's surgery and the very lovely receptionist had a look and said the report is in, but she couldn't tell me what it said. She said if it had been urgent he would have told me to ring sooner, not in a week. And she has booked me in for a phone call this morning and said the doctor would 'put my mind at rest', so I hope that was her way of trying to tell me not to freak out.

If anyone has got any opinions on whether this is looking like bad news or not I would love to hear - good or bad. I feel like I'm drowning and there's nothing to hold on to.

Sorry to be melodramatic.

Hi AngieK,

All I can say from my experience of ultrasounds & scans - the radiographer isn't allowed to tell you what it might be (if they have an idea) because it has to be checked by the head radiographer & then the results go through to your GP. It may well be that the head radiographer has checked the scans & thinks it looks less worrying than the radiographer intimated. Hopefully you will know more once you've spoken to your GP later today & it may be able to put your mind at rest. Good luck & please let us know how the call went.

Angie

Hi AngieK,

All I can say from my experience of ultrasounds & scans - the radiographer isn't allowed to tell you what it might be (if they have an idea) because it has to be checked by the head radiographer & then the results go through to your GP. It may well be that the head radiographer has checked the scans & thinks it looks less worrying than the radiographer intimated. Hopefully you will know more once you've spoken to your GP later today & it may be able to put your mind at rest. Good luck & please let us know how the call went.

Angie

Thanks, Angie... it's really nice of you to reply. I think I've lost all sense of perspective but I am trying to get it back.

He hasn't rung yet but I wil update once I have a better idea what the report says. 

AK

Well he called back. It's good, I think - he said the report did say, solid mass, low echogenicity, well defined. And vascularised. It says it should be considered suspicious and referred for further investigation.

But he explained that he doesn't see anything in the report to suggest that malignancy is likely, as such - it's not infiltrating anything, hasn't changed much in six/seven years, and is small, so he thinks it far more likely to be benign... but they have to rule out anything bad, so he thinks it's best if we take it out.

I was expecting the two-week thing but he came back to the phone and said he's booked it for the end of December. So that is a great relief; I shall still wonder whether I ought to believe the radiographer's suspicion over the GP, and press to have it sooner, but for the time being I am grateful for the reprieve from worrying so I will assume they are in agreement to a large extent. After all it makes sense to take out something with features that overlap with malignancy, and find out what it is.

I might actually eat something finally.

Very best wishes to everyone who talked to me. You made such a difference; it meant I wasn't alone.

Thank you

Hey, im so sorry to jump on your post after so long but was just wondering how you got on with your lump in the end? So glad I seen your post. 

I am awaiting an ultrasound/biopsy for a seemingly enlarged node at back of my neck. Been here for 5/6 years.

Im petrified, not ate properly for past 2 weeks. Was told urgent app due to it being over 1cm hard and unmovable but seemingly urgent is up to 12 weeks now. Im in Scotland.

So looks like another 2 months of feeling so worried lies ahead for now. Got nyaelf convinced of the worst as we do and have 4 kids that breaks my heart to wven think of the worst

Thank you

Gailx

Hi Gailx,

My daughter had her tonsils & adenoids removed in Feb 2022 after 7 years of fighting with the doctors. It turns out her were over TWICE their normal size & that she would have suffered from breathing difficulties! Yeah; no **** sherlock! Now, since their removal, she can breath, hasn't been ill & hasn't had any time off school.

RESULT!