Today, I saw my GP. I went with complaints of swollen but not tender lymph nodes. My right occipital node was so large and red that she thought it was a cyst at first. This is is my only uncomfortable/tender node. Upon feeling around, where I thought I'd only had 4-5 enlarged nodes, she found a whole chain of enlarged nodes leading from both occipital nodes down the posterior cervical area and into the subclavicular region. My left occipital node was almost the same size as the right one, and I couldn't feel anything there just two days ago. She did a CBC w/ differential and is waiting to schedule a biopsy because she is alarmed at the chain of swollen nodes. I also learned today that I have a birth defect (I'm 20 years old and no doctor has ever noticed it) called pectis excavatum. Essentially, my ribcage caves in slightly leaving no room for my heart and lungs, which causes my lungs and diaphragm to squeeze my heart when I inhale. I'm scheduled for an echocardiogram next week. Although I don't wish for a cancer diagnosis, I'm trying to find the positive in it, and if worse comes to worst, at least I will know that the symptoms I've had all year weren't in my head like my previous physicians led me to believe. Any personal experience with this would be appreciated. I'm not fearful or worried, more so, just interested in others' stories and curious about what to expect. TIA  ... View more

Hello, all! Last year l, I found a single, painless and hard lymph node on the left side of the back of my neck. I had it looked at and was told that it was a reactive node and required no further investigation. Since then, it's stayed the same, but I've had a ton of other symptoms such as extreme fatigue, loss of appetite, and weakness when walking but I just chalked it up to the normal life of a stay at home mom. Stress manifests this way sometimes so I ignored it, until last week. My dad has been inpatient in the cardiovascular ICU since new years, and I've been a lot more stressed than usual, which led to a lot of neck tension and rubbing my neck to try to ease that. While rubbing my neck, I found another lump. This one is much bigger, presumably about the size of a black bean. I tried not to worry about it, but I found myself running my fingers along that area and found a couple more lumps, all in the same grouping of lymph nodes. I believe them to be occipital nodes and posterior cervical nodes. Regardless, I set up an appointment to have these and my other symptoms examined, which is in 3 days. In the meantime, though, my mom disclosed to me that within the last three months, shes been seeing a specialist and has been given the "diagnosis" of lung cancer. I put that in quotations because upon imaging and other scans, they found masses in her lungs and told her that it's more than likely cancerous, then tried to schedule her for a biopsy. She told them she wouldnt do the biopsy and that if she has lung cancer, she doesnt want to know. Shes pretending that if she ignores it, it's not real. I'm just rather distraught. She told me she won't do a biopsy because it doesn't matter what kind of cancer she is dealing with, she will not do chemo or radiation anyway. Both of my parents are dying from different, aggressive diseases and I'm currently waiting to find out if I, too, have a health problem to worry about. I haven't mentioned anything about these enlarged nodes to anyone but my doctor, so really, I just came here to get that off my chest. It feels wrong to complain about my worries to my parents when my parents actually have something to worry about. If anyone has any experience with cancer of the lymph nodes or lymphatic system, and/or lung cancer(s), any "this is my story" type comments or positivity is appreciated.  ... View more