Swollen lymph nodes for 7-8 years

Posted , 101 users are following.

Hello,

I'm a 22 year old male and as the title says I have had swollen lymph nodes in my neck and armpits for almost 8 years. It started when I was around 15 years old with a one or two nodes getting swollen in my neck. The GP said it was nothing so I haven't paid any more attention to them. Over the following few weeks I noticed a few more in my neck and a few in my armpits. They are around 0.5cm - 2.5cm in size, hard, painless and movable and haven't changed in these 7-8 years. I have no other symptoms.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

5 likes, 186 replies

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  • Posted

    Hello

    Don't know if anyone still looks at this but it really helps with the anxiety. 24 years old and after pulling my neck and shoulder at the gym I kept rubbing my neck and felt a small movable node about a CM. I'm sure I've felt this before when I had glandular fever and several bouts of tonsilitus but never feel my neck so wouldn't know how long it's been there! Had blood tests and only ones that doctor wanted to retest due to slightly borderline on normal was b12 and thyroid. Cannot stop worrying and feeling the node!

  • Posted

    I had swelling of lymph nodes from groins, necks and the groins is much, littles ones. painless but i want to know the reason why it might be

    • Posted

      Sorry to hear that buddy.

      I'm having the same since 3 months now. I did many exams ...they all came back normal.

      Any advice from anyone in the group please? Thanks

  • Posted

    Hi! I'm 22 and a girl, Lol but I definitely know how you feel! Since a few years ago I've dealt with swollen lymph nodes in my neck/under jaw and they've never gone away! My doctor says it's nothing to worry about, that doesn't give me peace of mind but I'm glad I'm not alone!

    • Posted

      same here.. 5 years already gone, but nothing too much change on my swollen lymph nodes

  • Posted

    Same here, i have 3 swollen lymph node on left side neck and 1 on right side for around 3 years, size: around 1,2 ~ 1.7 cm, my healthy is ok, clinical exames ok.

    • Posted

      if he has had them for so long with no change and basic dr examination there is very little chance its anything harmful ir requiring biopsy.

  • Edited

    hi! i m 25 years old and i first felt my swollen lymph nodes when i was 15-16 years old. i have enlarged nodes on my neck, behind ears, under each armpit, in the groin. they are less than 1 cm and some have under 1,5 cm. They did not change in time and they remained the same size. during the past years these nodes made my life awful, gave me anexiety and depression. I visited tens of doctors and each one of them told me i m healthy and advised me to enjoy my life and stop worring. The nodes problem does not go away of my mind and every day i believe i m getting sick. today i start feeling an itch on some parts of my body. i m very worried. sorry for my english, i m not a native speaker. what do you, guys, think?

  • Posted

    hey everyone ,

    this is a old post but i noticed people are coming back to this , so after this whole lockdown i wanted to see how everyone was doing . my message is basically a vent but also hopefully give someone a peace of mind .

    so it seems like pretty much all of us are here for a reason and i must say this thread pretty much saved my life . i have SEVERE like horrible health anxiety , this whole forum gave me so much relief . so basically im a huge google guy when it comes to symptoms . like im very bad . i find it weird that when you look up enlarged lymph nodes or permanently enlarged lymph nodes nothing pops up in google pretty much the only thing is cancer, i have pretty much 2 lymph nodes that are kind of on the larger side . 1 of them is in my jaw bone that i remember i had since i was a little child and stayed ever since this one is hard and i can move it all around , another one im like 75 % sure i had for a while but i never poked at it like i did with my jaw so i cant say for sure how long . but the one in my neck (right side below ear ) i got a ultrasound and i calculated the numbers and it said 2.4 cm but heres the problem i got a ultrasound at its peak of it being swollen . and about like 4 days after that from the eye and everyone i asked it seems to have swelled down so it might even be less now . but i want to inform you guys that DO NOT POKE AND CONSTANTLY TOUCH THEM . i became so obsessed with this one and i squeezed and poked it so much that my neck literally turned red and black and blue . (yes i know im nuts ) and then when it looked so puffy i freaked out and got s ultrasound right away probably a day or 2 after it looked nasty from touching it . so basically i set myself up for disaster by getting the ultrasound like a day or two after bruising my neck from touching it so much (literally every chance i got at work i would mess with it ) . i got blood test and urine test and pretty much all these different test i can think of all came back normal . i just for some reason convinced myself i had some sort of "C" . i literally cried like a child ( im 21) for hours for the whole week , could not eat and tried to sleep the days away but couldnt because i would wake up with a huge stomach ache from not eating , called out of work for like 2 days , went back to smoking cigs after i quit for a while and lost my sanity i planned my funeral it was nuts . so when i saw my GP and talked to the radiologist nobody was rly worried , of course the gp prescribed me antibiotics and said if it doesnt go down come back ( noticed from every forum i read THEY ALL SAY THIS) and thats where i got even more anxious because i thought "he wants me to come back so there must be something wrong , i cant wait that long, what if i stay like this then i must be sick !" google will never mention that if it stays slightly enlarged and doesnt cause a problem its normal . instead it says everything over 1cm is not normal . so thats where i keep getting freaked out . but then i came to my senses because after not touching it for a few days the swelling and tenderness went down after a few days , its still there and i am guilty of touching it sometimes to reassure myself , it does seem slightly smaller but its soft and i can move it around my neck and the only time i can see it coming out a bit is when i twist my neck and stretch it pretty hard but if im relaxed and chilling i kind of have to fish around for it for a few seconds and cant really feel it , so knowing all your stories and stuff i am so relieved . i made my doctor send me to get a biopsy that i havent went to yet , im still gonna go and talk to the guy , if he wants to do it to make me feel better then ill prob do it , but at the same time im debating it bc i know doing so can cause some swelling in the neck and possibly enlarge other nodes that i will start to worry about . point is , if your like me , take a second and be logical . if its swelled to a pretty big ball and its rock hard snd does not move and other lymph nodes pop up , get it checked and push for further testing just to make sure and ease your mind. i noticed with alot of research that literally everyone with certain "c's" you will have those symptoms i said above and also others such as night sweats and swelling in different parts of body and fevers and sickeness that wont go away (cough, fatigue , vomiting ,etc) and with the very slim chance it is something bad like that , these kinds of c's are often very treatable even at late stages. always get it checked up , but dont drive yourself mad like i have , life is to short to ruin years of your life , have fun with life , be vigilant of major signs but dont go full panic mode if a lymph node is a little bigger than others , many things csn cause them to become always enlarged and stay like that for years or for the rest of your life . for example i have had a bad virus when i was a child that affected my mouth , feet and other parts ( think its called cacksackie ) , also i get cold sores on my lip like 2-4 times a year (herpes virus) , i have enlarged tonsils and got frequent strep throat and tonsilitis and ear infections and i even have tmj and a allergies . so that can explain why these things have stayed large , oh and another thing having that fatty hilum present in the nodes is a good sign usually the ones that dont have that are a little more suspicious. if you read all of this i hope you got some peace of mind , because reading your responses literally gave me such relief , as i suffer from bad health anxiety and anxiety in general i will probably go through the vicious cycle of worrying again about the same thing or something else in the future . just stay healthy , few more tips to relieve symptoms of lymph node swelling is drink lots of water with lemons , warm/cold compresses , drink green tea , and try to relax because anxiety and stress will make these suckers go crazy . dont be like me and smoke cigs because that also can inflame lymph nodes and is also just bad for your health .

  • Posted

    ok so i did end up freaking out again after seeing the same node in the mirror , didnt freak out as bad but kind of felt numb like at this point whatever ; but some more news , i finally did some research on how to calculate the nodes , its not (ex) 1x1x1 = 1 its literally length x width x height so my biggest node is 2.5 x 0.7 x 1.4 so im happy that the width is not big which would be more concerning my width is not even a cm so thats good . also checked my mother and she has a the same big node in the same exact place ! hers is hard though ( guess hardened from never going down ) but anyways it can be genetic i guess? anyways going through with the biopsy and nervous as hell but now im even more convinced it will be nothing . if anybody is going through same thing lets talk and get through this together

  • Posted

    Ok, guys, I don't know if my experience could be put you at ease, but if it does, I'll be glad.

    I have had a swollen lymph node for about 10 years or more. I remember I was on holiday in 2010 when I felt a small lump on the right of my neck (I was 19); I didn't remember how I got it, probably it had been there months or years before, but it didn't bother me too much, so I forgot it till 2014; I had a really bad flu with high fever and my throat sore too much, and I felt that my neck hurt, and it was when I remembered it. After a few months I went to my GP for other reason and I told her about the lump; she touched it and she didn't give it much importance since it moves, it's small (less than 1cm) and it's not hard, of course I explained her that the lump had been there for, at least, 4 years, and she just told me that if it changed, came back to see her. But, it never happened. I mentioned the same to my new GP 4 years ago, but again the same.

    So, I've been with a swollen lymph node for too much years; it's quite useful because it usually hurts a bit when I'm about to have the flu or I have fever, so it's more like a snitch to me.

    I know some people with the same thing; my mum is one of them, she has a swollen lymph node in the back of her neck and the GP said her the same, just in case it changes, don't worry to much; it's been there for more than 15 years.

    A friend of mine has one too, in his neck, though it's a little bit bigger than mine (I think 1.5cm), he had an ultrasound and it was nothing (it was more than 6 years ago), the lump is still there, but it hasn't changed.

    I hope this give you some peace. but it doesn't mean you just have to forget about it, specially when it's too recently; try not to be obsessed too much and don't get too scared to not go to your GP, you need that a professional examine it, after that, if it goes well, you can be relaxed, but don't forget to check it from time to time.

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