Hi everyone I hope everyone is ok.
I don’t know if I should be here as I’ve not been diagnosed with anything as of yet I’m just going through the motions of everything at the moment.
Basically I started developing symptoms September last year where my chest was tight I was dealing with wheezing, really itchy skin and a persistent cough that was worse of a morning. I kept putting it off but then earlier this earlier things started to progress abit more. The itchy skin continued and it feels like once a month the itchiness is located somewhere new. It started on my legs, then moved to my feet, then arms and lastly hands. (At the minute we are back on hands itching). I also started noticing pain when drinking alcohol, feeling extremely exhausted after the most average of tasks and lastly a painless lump that moves in my left collarbone. This made me go to the doctors and they sent me for blood tests that came back with my inflammatory markers high and white blood cells within normal range but on the high side. So along with that and my lump they referred me to haematology for what I thought was going to be a ultrasound and a biopsy. However she sent me for a CT scan. The CT scan came back quite quickly and during this time I developed a second lump in my armpit. The haematologist called me to say they saw the lumps I had pointed out but they didn’t look abnormal and nothing else flagged up other than a fatty liver so she was discharging me back to my GPS care. Now a month later I’m still feeling the exact same and my lumps are still here, I would say they have become more pronounced. I went back to my GP today who examined my lumps again and said my neck one especially felt suspicious but because it’s only been a month since I got discharged he wants me to wait it out to see if they change again or if I get more lumps. I’ve read the only way to really diagnose lymphoma is to have a biopsy, do I push for this? Could it be that I have got a slow growing lymphoma growing? Has anyone else had something similar happen to them? I’d love to hear some feedback as I’m just going out of my mind with all of this waiting.
thank you for reading and I hope you are all ok
Hi Mol93 and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our various Lymphoma groups. I was diagnosed way back in 1999 at 43 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma eventually reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well.
The Diagnosis of Lymphoma is both simple but also complicated....... a core biopsy of a lump or growth area is indeed the main diagnosis tool so yes you have to be looking for this so you go back to your GP if the lumps and the symptoms ramin or get worse and your GP will refer you back to the system....... you can insist for this is done...... but you have to get the system to do it...... at times this is a problem and makes it complicated....... as your symptoms could be relating to something completely different and not Lymphoma.
Even if it is a type of lymphoma..... this looks like it is growing very slowly so there is time to get a clear diagnosis as even being diagnosed with say a low grade NHL you may not even get treatment and be put on Active Monitoring and treatment held back until a time where treatment will do it's best job....... it took 14 years before I needed full on treatment.
How old are you?
I was diagnosed in 1999 and had no symptoms apart from a developing rash and even although my consultant was 99% sure I had a rare type of Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma it took a year and 6 biopsies to get the truth.
Always around to help more or just to chat
I am doing great, my story is very long and very complicated so make a cup of tea/coffee and hit the link to my story at the bottom of my reply’s for my story.
A 1cm lump would most likely not be seen as big enough to be of any concern…. if it grows then this would be a trigger for further investigations.
I had a movable lump appear in my neck a few months after my last treatment back in Oct 2015 and as I had a history of Lymphoma it was checked out and it’s just a fatty lump and has not changed in all the 7.5 years….. so not all lumps are Lymphoma.
