I was just feeling some discomfort in my neck. I asked her what it could be, and she said I could have some type of infection or worst case scenario that it could be some kind of cancer.” – Tylere P. I asked if we could go get it checked out. My mom is a nurse practitioner, so I showed her when I was visiting one weekend. “I noticed I had swollen lymph nodes on the left side of my neck. As soon as I started to feel other ones lower down my neck, it just didn’t seem right.” – Danielle D. “I really didn’t have any symptoms except for the one lymph node on my right side that was just getting bigger and bigger as time went on. Usually, if there’s swelling from a viral infection, you see symmetrical swelling, so just having it on the right side only was a little alarming.” – Charlie B. About three weeks later I met with another doctor, as I discovered another lump.” – Tony D. I was told it was probably an infection that had caused a lymph node to enlarge and nothing to worry about. I thought this was a muscle knot and kept trying to rub it out. Some patients say that their lymph nodes grew slowly overtime, while some patients say that their lymph nodes grew seemingly overnight. Swollen supraclavicular lymph nodes are more likely to indicate cancer than swollen nodes in other parts of the body.

One red flag to watch out for is swelling of the supraclavicular lymph nodes, which are located just above your collar bone. It is common for doctors to prescribe a round of antibiotics in order to rule out infection before performing further tests. Your doctor may perform a blood test, ultrasound, or a fine needle aspiration biopsy in order to give you a diagnosis. It’s important to ask a doctor about any unusual lymph node swelling that you experience. However, rapid swelling can cause painful irritation of the tissues around the lymph node, and texture can vary from person to person. Most of the time, these lymph nodes are painless and have a “rubbery” texture. Lymphoma patients interviewed by The Patient Story most commonly report lymph node swelling in the neck, throat, and jaw. While most lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph nodes) is caused by infection, it can sometimes indicate cancer. Lymphoma can cause lymph nodes in the neck, throat, jaw, armpit, or groin to visibly swell.

Swelling of the lymph nodes is often the first thing lymphoma patients notice. Read on for highlights from lymphoma patient stories of how they first experienced signs that something was wrong. Many are interpreted at first as symptoms of a cold, flu, or general fatigue. It’s common for pre-diagnosis lymphoma patients to experience a number of symptoms at the same time, rather than a single one. How patients described their first signs of lymphoma

Itchy lymph nodes back of neck