I am not a doctor, but questions about swollen lymph occur regularly on this site.

Not every swollen lymph shrinks back down again.  Occasionally, a node swells in response to an infection, but doesn't go back to its normal size.   

You've had this node for years and said that you don't have any of the classic lymphoma symptoms, such as night sweats, itching, breathlessness, etc. It seems to me that you have no reason to think that lymphoma is a likely diagnosis, other than the fact you've Googled it.  I think we all agree on this site that Dr Google is quack who should have been struck off years ago.  Take everything you read on Google with a pinch of salt. 

Try not to worry about the ultrasound.  Please let us know how you get on.  Your feedback helps us improve our answers for other people. 

Hi Telemando,

Thanks so much for your kind reply. I hope you're right, and what you say makes sense; there's no real reason to think it's anything bad, except for the fact my doctor thought it worth a referral.

I'm trying to get on with stuff and not think about it too much; I will try to update once I've had an appointment. At least then if someone else googles the same question, it might reassure them - unless it is something nasty in which case I'll stick around anyway I suppose : )

Thanks again.

AK

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

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

Hi my 4 year old son has swollen one lymph node on the right side of his neck for 3 weeks . He had 4 types of antibiotics and it did shrink little bit , but its still quite visible when he put his head up . He had an ultrasound and they said to us its nothing to worry about its a reactive node and his blood test showed higher marks for infection.  So they said he has lymphadenitis infection . He had temperature couple of times as well and now we are on another antibiotics but it doesnt seem to get any better . Only he feels good now but the lymph node its still there. I am worried like crazy but let's hope the doctor knows what they doing