Hi Matt!

First of all, take a deep breath, and try to relax for a moment. Dr Google will always convince you that you have cancer, but the reality is that a very tiny number of persistently swollen lymph nodes (I seem to remember it being around 0.4%) are cancerous. 

It's pretty normal to have some lymph nodes that you can always feel. They can range quite a bit in size too, particaurly the ones in your groin which can be quite large but still normal. As you said, it's also possible that after you had an infection they just never returned to normal size.

The chances are you either caught a cold/flu bug and had no symptoms, or your body was able to fight it off before you got symptoms, hence why your nodes may have enlarged.

Teeth grinding or a massage shouldn't cause them to swell. It seems very unlikely that you would've gotten cat scratch fever from your kitten- it's quite rare anyway, but if you keep the cat indoors all the time (I'm assuming you would with a kitten) it doesn't really have anywhere to pick the disease up.

What to do next depends on a few things. If it definitely feels that it's gotten bigger, and it's been 2 weeks or more since it got bigger and you have no clear idea why it's swollen, and if it feels very hard, it may be worth reaching out to your doctor again and pushing for an ultrasound scan. 

If you have some reasonable ideas as to why it may be swollen still and if feels quite soft, it is probably just reactive.

But either way, try not to get consumed by worry- as I said, a very small number of lymph nodes that stay persistently swollen are cancerous. Lymph nodes are funny things and can play up very easily.

Do let me know if you have any more questions 

Jerry :) 

Thanks Jerry for taking the time to reply to me. I really appreciate it. You're 100% right. I'm a stickler for overthinking and not looking at the positives in situations like this. - I did read about the 0.4% statistic. 
 

it's actually really strange, for almost 4 weeks now it's been swollen bigger than it was previously, and yesterday I decided to reach out on here for advice, because yesterday I felt it had gotten bigger. This morning, it's gotten smaller by quite a bit, unbelievable. I'm hoping it stays that way, I have been fatigued the last month so you must be right, probably fighting off an infection that didn't really show symptoms. 
 

im pretty sure the neck and shoulder pain/discomfort is from the massage and exercises he did. As that is still sore even this morning, 3 weeks after. But I'll just be happy if the node goes down even further and I can get on with my life instead of googling at work all day instead of doing important stuff haha.

thanks again Jerry.

Hi Matt.

I agree with Akkora, stop the googling! (I wish I had followed this advice myself). 

It's amazing how many "symptoms" we can trick ourselves into having when we've read too far into the Internet.

When I found my lump it was just after a massage, about the size of a golf ball. But it stayed the same, never got bigger or smaller, didn't move and was very hard. No pain. I went to see my gp after 6 wks of no change and was referred straight to ultrasound.

So it sounds very positive that yours has reduced in size.

E. 

Hi E, thanks for replying. 
 

I only made an account on here yesterday but I've been reading the discussions on here for weeks. You're replies on other posts and they way you've clearly dealt with what's going on is truly inspiring and I wish you A speedy recovery. 
 

A lot of your comments and your outlook on things is what has calmed me down when I've been anxious over the last few weeks, so thank you. 

Hi again Matt,

it's super news that it's gone down in size- if it was cancerous, I don't think that could possibly happen, it would only be able to stay the same size or get increasingly bigger. So it sounds like it's just a regular reactive node and nothing to worry about :) I hope you're feeling calmer about it now!

Hi Matt.

What a wonderful thing to read. Thank you for posting. I'm here as part of building my support and to feel like I'm "in control", but to hear I've bought a small amount of support to you too has made me smile.

I was discharged from hospital yesterday and now recovering at home. Seems to be going OK so far, made it outside for a short walk, managing to eat, and keeping spirits high. There's some nerve disruption which was unexpected to keep an eye on and will learn more at follow up Friday.

E.