Swollen Lymph Glands

[Nickos66]

Hi folks,I’ve had lymph nodes up approximately the size of a hazelnut forever really,none painful,until recently,then one on my neck is swollen to about 2inches long,then i started with really painful ones at the back of my head just above the neck.I don’t feel ill or even slightly off! Has anyone experienced these types? I’m waiting on blood results back.

[MaxSmart]

What does your doctor say?

[cajunjeff]

I have had nodes that did not hurt and a couple quite painful. Some of my doctors have told me nodes dont hurt. Easy for them to say, right?

My suspicion is that it is a a matter of semantics. While the nodes themselves might not hurt, they can hurt if they abut a nerve somewhere and compress it to any degree. In that since its the irritated nerve root that hurts, not the node itself.

With no offense to medical professionals that either insist nodes do not hurt or suggest that it’s our imagination, I would like to share one of my painful nodes with them for a day and get their opinion then. My pain with nodes was as much physical as it was mental,I think. By mental, I dont mean to say I was imaging the pain. Rather, by mental I mean that even if that node was only slightly uncomfortable, it was enough to be a constant reminder of my cll and stoke fears it and other nodes would only grow over time, which was worrisome.

I will say the pain was not constant but tended to wax and wane a bit. But it was real pain when I had it, not so much meaning serious pain, just enough pain to make it noticeable and bothersome. And I also had nodes which were completely pain free, in my simple mind that meant to me they were not close enough or big enough to irritate a nearby nerve.

My nodes went away quickly with ibrutinib. A noticeable marble size node, that was pain free, popped up on the inside of my elbow recently which caused me concern that cll resistance had overcome my acalabrutinib. It slowly disappeared and my docs opined it was more due to a gum infection I had, as my labs did not suggest a cll return. The elbow node went away in a couple weeks, but I can still feel a tiny remnant of it if I press hard enough.