Last year around March.. I noticed a knot on the back of my neck where the hairline starts.. I really didn’t pay it any mind until it didn’t go away.. so I looked on the internet and first thing I see is enlarged lymph nodes.. so I started to get scared wondering why this would happen.. so I started to panic, I made a doctors appointment the following week.. and during the week my parotid gland started to swell up on the right side .. so I started to feel that area and I also noticed a lil knot under earth and jaw bone where the swelling was at.. actually the knot is slightly under the swelling .. so I started to panic even more and think cancer!! So I went to doctor they said they think it just allergies and don’t worry unless it gets bigger.. so I went home and thought about and said we’ll what if it does get bigger so I made another appointment.. this time her ordered a cat scan .. and this what it said
Technique: Multiple grayscale images were obtained of the neck
COMPARISON: None available
INTERPRETATION:
Adjacent to the right parotid gland there is a 0.3 x 0.3 x 0.1 cm node.
Just inferior to the parotid gland there is a 0.5 x 1.5 x 0.3 cm normal
appearing lymph node. The right parotid gland measures 2.6 x 1.6 x 3.0
cm.
Tiny 0.3 x 0.6 cm lymph node is seen adjacent to the left parotid gland.
Posterior to the parotid there is a 1.1 x 0.3 x 0.6 cm nodule and
inferiorly there is a 0.8 x 0.5 x 1.2 cm node. The left parotid gland
measures 4.1 x 1.8 x 3.0 cm.
CONCLUSION:
Small bilateral lymph nodes in the vicinity of the parotid gland.
after all this it went away..until I seen someone on tv die from salvia cancer.. then everything started to kick back in.. I mean on and off the symptoms would come and go but now it’s back and I’m very scared I might have cancer can someone please help me and tell me what’s going on.. my ear feel clogged and irritated too.. also I had blood test and they didn’t see anything
John, didn’t your doctor discuss the results of the cat scan with you? Did he or she tell you they need to follow up or not?? Were you told the results were normal? I would imagine if they were concerned about this you would’ve been told there needs to be more follow-up testing done. Most likely the blood test would have detected something if anything was wrong.
Your anxiety about this can cause overthinking and fear and panic sets in.
Call the doctors office and leave a message for your doctor to call you back. Get clarification on the test results, explain any symptoms you have now, and ask if you need to follow up. Do this for your peace of mind. If the doctor says everything is normal then you need to work on managing the anxiety you are feeling. Keep yourself busy and not occupying yourself with looking up symptoms because that will increase your anxiety. Lymph nodes get swollen many times for non-serious reasons. Sometimes we have a virus going on which can cause that. I’ve had swollen lymph nodes in my neck, armpits, growing lymph nodes get swollen many times for non-serious reasons. Sometimes we have a virus going on which can cause that. I’ve had swollen lymph nodes in my neck, armpits, groin. I never knew why but they eventually went away on their own. That’s usually what happens. And that was over 30 years ago. Children get swollen lymph nodes on the neck all the time when they are sick with a cold or flu.
Allergies can do that too, especially when you say your ear is clogged and irritated.
Relax , talk to the doctor if you want if it would give you reassurance, but if they found anything unusual, they would be doing more tests.
OMG thankyou so so so so so much!!! You don’t understand what that message done for me! I really do appreciate the time you have gave me.. yes they did explain to me but they only did an ultrasound I see a lot of people on here or other forums say something about cat scan and getting a biopsy just to be sure.. only thing I did was ultrasound that’s why I was scared thinking they might have missed something.. they felt my neck and said they couldn’t feel anything and they did blood work and said it looks fine.. they said just take Flonase that’s it.. I just don’t understand why this lil tiny knot behind my ear comes and goes .. I hope and pray it’s just a lymph node I can feel now because of earache or something .. it’s very tiny I can feel it behind ear and one a lil farther down on my neck.. might also be worse from anxiety
Hi John, I concur with Jan, everything is normal and with tests etc and scan done there is no chance they could have missed anything, anything serious would light up like a beacon on blood tests. Lymph nodes increase and decrease in size depending on whether they are actively doing something like fighting a virus. My lymph nodes were enlarged when I was a child but everything was normal.