How is this not cancer?

Hi all,

I'm a 35 year old male, and I've been feeling unwell for 6 years. I've had pain chronic pain on the right side of my body, and some other "global" symptoms which have come along the way, like weakness/fatigue, thirst, chills/cold intolerance.

2016: This all started with pain in my right groin/right testicle/lower right abdomen. I had a CT scan which showed a couple of SLIGHTLY larger-than-normal nodes in my LRQ abdomen. Nothing else remarkable. All blood work was fine.

2017: The above persisted, but the pain now moved higher up into my abdomen, near my liver. Around this time, I noticed that I was sweating a lot more than what was normal for me. Especially during exercise, but also just sitting at my desk I would be sweating from my underarms. Not normal for me. Again, all bloodwork was normal.

2018: New pain in my back, "behind" my liver. This is also when some of the bouts of extreme fatigue/perceived weakness began. HIDA scan was normal. All bloodwork was normal.

2021: All of the above still true, but now getting pains just to the right of my Adam's apple. Tender/painful to the touch, and painful to swallow. Pain also went up into my right ear. A CT scan of the soft tissue of my neck (NO CONTRAST) was unremarkable, as was an ultrasound. This year, I also started to get episodes of "chills" when I was exposed to any sort of cool/cold temps - even walking under an air conditioner at 65 degrees would set off waves of chills. I had a repeat scan of my abdomen/chest, and all was fine. Bloodwork was mostly normal, aside from high AFP serum (tumor markers) - but doc said that could just be my normal level.

Today: All of the above, but now getting pains on the right side of my head. There seems to be a very slight, constant headache - which is becoming more noticeable. Multiple times per day, I'll get quick bursts of shooting pain on the side of my head. I have a lymph node in the back of my head (occipital), which is now sore when I tilt my head back.

Zooming out, it's pretty clear that these painful areas have spread up the right side of my body over the past 6 years. And I've added new overall symptoms each year, which I have fought so hard through but are becoming too unbearable to go on.

I'm not willing to accept anxiety/depressionas a cause given the one-sided nature of my pain, though these things certainly can make all of my symptoms at least a little bit worse.

I spent years and years chewing on paper, plastic, metal can tabs, my shirt sleeves, pretty much anything and everything (not an iron deficiency, just a bad habit). Thinking back on all of those chemicals that I ingested, I think I'm doomed. All of this chewing also caused TMJD on both sides, and I have severe osteoarthritis on the right side --- however, no jaw pain!

I have read that CT scans won't detect cancer all of the time, though they are great for detecting masses. Is it plausible that I don't even have a mass? Could there be any other explanation?

Any thoughts are appreciated!

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