Just a brief message to add to the body of posts that try to ease some anxious minds out there.

I was referred to a head & neck consultant via the 2-Week Wait scheme after I found some hard nodes on the left side of my neck - cervical nodes if I’m not mistaken - and about a week of fever and fatigue. My tonsillar nodes were enlarged too - these were about an inch or more in length and oval shaped. This was about a year ago. I hadn’t had any other classic symptoms e.g. night sweats, itching, weight loss, although a  blood test came back with two abnormal results: high plasma C reactive protein, and high lactase dehydrogenase.

Consultant was great - heard me out and decided he needed to rule out lymphoma. Went for an ultrasound a few weeks later, and they took a look not only at my neck but also my armpits and groin. I had some small hard nodes that I could feel in those areas too. For a few bizarre minutes that I knew could potentially be life-changing, time seemed to be suspended, and the doctor took photo after photo of the images of my lymph nodes. He then turned to me and said words to the effect of “Everything looks fine, nothing too large, nothing the wrong shape or full of bad-looking stuff”. This was surprising to hear, because my tonsillar nodes were pretty large I thought! He explained that nodes will have become spherical if something bad was up, but that mine were still elliptical/oval. He mentioned that there was some fatty material in one of them but that that wasn’t too concerning. One of the nodes was on the larger end of the range of “normal sizes”, so we should keep an eye out for it but that nothing he saw was worrying.

After he explained this and said I wasn’t free to leave, I thanked him, said goodbye, walked out and felt like crying! Managed to keep it together until I was somewhere little less crowded

I’ve since gone for another ultrasound to check up, and have been keeping an eye on e.g. weight, whether I’m sweating in the night, fatigue. No problems there. Lymph nodes had also decreased a little in size by this point (5 months later) but could still be felt under the skin as hard lumps ranging from lentil-sized to perhaps kidney bean-sized. The ultrasound doctor (sonographer?) this time giving a similar story and saying “bad things like cancer don’t just go away”.

All in all my lymph nodes have decreased in size, though I can still feel my left tonsillar node which is still hard and about 1cm long, but smaller than it was before and is more mobile (it slides about under my skin if I push it in one direction or other).

Some advice that I would give to anyone facing a combination of symptoms like mine is: absolutely do speak to your GP about it, since they will know best what to do, but similarly don’t let Google tell you that you have a lymphoma - these symptoms have multiple possible causes, and chances are that you’re not in anywhere near as much trouble as you think you are. The doctors know what to look for, and can tell you more about your lymph nodes with the use of e.g. ultrasound than you can tell Google.

Hope this is helpful for someone! Stay well and safe.