Swollen lymph nodes for a year and a half

24 year old male, last year I had a bad upper respiratory infection. Following this a couple weeks after antibiotics I had several lymph nodes pop up in the left side of my neck (doctors would later tell me in the posterior cervical chain) I would later find a couple infront of the left side of my neck as well as well as two under my jaw. All feel like a bean size or a pea but I promise you they were not there prior. My doctor ran blood work and everything was normal, no mono, no TB the only oddity was slightly low B12. Anyway he did a chest X-ray which showed a tiny amount of fluid on a lung so they did a CT scan (when I was super sick I had coughed up blood) and it came back totally clear of my chest and upper abdomen. We waited a few weeks and the lymph nodes never went down. He did more blood work and they still didn’t go down. He did an ultrasound which was reported as normal looking lymph nodes (however I would later find out some were 2cm in the long axis) most of which were just under or just over a cm in long axis. There was an incidental finding of a cyst on my thyroid but it appears completely fluid filled. He referred me to ENT, who said he wasn’t worried they felt like normal lymph nodes, while I wasn’t happy as I know they are new so I went to another ENT at a very reputable hospital in our stretch of the nation who felt them and said he really wasn’t worried but he could tell I was. He did ultrasounds again, no signs of growth a couple had gotten every so slightly smaller but no real change. He seem I still wasn’t happy and did a FNA of one of the larger nodes deeper in I couldn’t feel. It came back as negative for malignancy but I know they aren’t 100% for ruling out lymphoma. By the time this was done it had been a year they were there. He didn’t want to do an excision as they were so small so he referred me to hematology who reviewer me and again said my nodes would be considered normal if I hadn’t mentioned they were new. They reviewed labs and ultrasounds and said that ultimately they thought I was fine. They said if I wanted I could do ultrasound follow ups for peace of mind but said even with the most slow growing lymphoma they would expect to see some level of growth within the nodes themselves in a year and since I had numerous ultrasounds by that point it gave a clear picture no growth was occurring. I went back to another ENT at that facility (the previous moved to another state) she felt them and agreed with the others. She even looked at the ultrasound pictures with me. The largest on the left was 1.7cm by .7 cm now even though the left is where I felt the new ones she looked at the San of the right and said one measured 2.9cm in long axis!! .9cm in short. However when reviewing the image she said it appears to be two nodes stuck together giving the illusion it’s longer when it isn’t. That fits as I’ve felt two tiny little bumps that move together in the right side of my neck since way back (I know they say stuck together is bad) but I’m not joking when I say that I’ve had those at least ten years if not more.

Anyway I’m coming up on my year and a half ultrasound. I’m still worried. I had a great uncle pass away of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and doctors kept telling him he was fine (this was in the early 1970’s though) still I’ve had two doctors, three ENT’s and a hematologist review my work up and none are concerned. I’m somewhat confused by the radiologists who say the size is normal when I’ve heard anything over a centimeter is not normal and I have a handful of those. Otherwise I’ve got roughly ten new lymph nodes I feel in neck on one side only along the front and posterior cervical chains as well as under jaw, I can feel a small pea one in my left armpit but that could have always been there and I am quite skinny. My bloods come back normal besides occasional slightly low WBC but I’ve always been that way.

I just always see people say to get second and third opinions but I’ve gotten 5! From multiple specialists infact, any input here would be greatly appreciated. I know people can go for years without symptoms but is it true growth within the node itself would be expected after this long?

I forgot to mention-most of the doctors who accept they are new say that sometimes following a bad infection nodes don’t really return to normal but remain slightly enlarged, one ENT even showed me one he had.

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