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New lump under ear

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  • wallycat
    wallycat Member Posts: 1,258
    edited December 2020
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    Congrats on getting results so quickly (I know it didn't seem that way) and having good results. Benign is such a musical word.

    Your thoughts are so spot on...and would that any of us could take it to heart that borrowing worry doesn't stop or change anything. I'm going through a small scare with my DH tonight and he's taking it all in stride....

    Enjoy the holidays and stay safe/social distance, blah, blah.

    Thanks for updating us.

  • alicebastable
    alicebastable Member Posts: 1,942
    edited December 2020
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    Beesie

    The actual report on my u/s said "appears to be benign" but I got a message from someone at the imaging center that worded it more like "Congratulations, as far as we can tell, it's benign." I had a routine appointment with my PCP the next week, and she agreed it's nothing to worry about. If it gets larger (as even harmless things tend to do on my body), I'll go back to the ENT who removed my neck lipoma about five years ago. I hope, if it gets larger, it waits until next fall/winter so I can recover under turtlenecks!

    KMom, great news!

  • beesie.is.out-of-office
    beesie.is.out-of-office Member Posts: 1,435
    edited December 2020
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    AliceBastable, it looks like we are all in the same boat. The good news is that we all have "benign-appearing" nodes that don't worry our doctors. It's also good that our doctors are all saying pretty much the same thing - it's nice to have that confirmed.

    In my case, one of my ultrasounds (I've had two so far) also found a thyroid nodule which appears to be a cyst. That's harmless, but with all the thyroid cancer and thyroid issues in my family, I'm thinking that's probably now another area where I'll have to start getting more regular screening. As Gilda Radner / Roseann Rosannadanna used to say, "It's always something!".



  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited December 2020
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    Thanks Beesie. He did say we "could repeat in three months" but that he really thought it was fine. So the repeat scan i think would be for my peace of mind, not because he thinks the nodes are not benign. Honestly I guess I'd be surprised if I DIDN'T have some reactive nodes show up right now with all the issues from rads, my hair growing back in where it thinned from chemo, and head congestion, ear pain, allergies to boot. It's one of the reasons I didn't do it — I was afraid they'd find some other enlarged nodes other than what we were trying to check, and send me down the rabbit hole.

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited December 2020
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    Wallycat, thanks. I’ve been trying for 19 years now to figure out how to get my intellectual understanding that “all the hypervigilance and worry in the world doesn’t stop bad things from sometimes happening“ from my brain into my soul. I’m not there yet. I have operated a long time now as if, by watching, I can keep planes from crashing into my office, or illness from invading my body, or xyz. It clearly didn’t work, did it. And it won’t work any more now. I just lost a lot of years of joy in the trying, and don’t want to lose any more.

    I hope your husband is ok.

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited December 2020
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    Alice, thank you for the support.

    Beesie yes it’s good to have the confirmation that all three of our doctors are saying the same. I fully expect to need more thyroid screening too. My thyroid was iffy before supraclavicular rads, and thyroid diagnoses are all over my family history, aunts, siblings, nephews, you name it. Roseann Rosannadanna Lol. Gave me a chuckle.

  • alicebastable
    alicebastable Member Posts: 1,942
    edited December 2020
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    My PCP is piggybacking a neck scan onto my routine abdomen CT in early June, just in case, due to my multiple cancer history. Plus she's adding chest to check the lung nodules for the oncologist and to track my aneurysm for the cardiac guy. One-stop shopping!

  • Ladyofthelake
    Ladyofthelake Member Posts: 13
    edited December 2020
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    I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I have a lump under my ear too. Opposite side to the cancer, no radiation treated received, and had been that way for about 6 months when I mentioned it to my onc. They did an ultrasound which said it was an enlarged 'intraparotid lymph node' but otherwise normal- no cancer. I haven't felt any changes in size or tenderness in the last year, so suppose all is ok.

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited February 2021
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    Ultrasound today of the enlarged cervical node. I’m not feeling good about it. Hope I’m wrong, and imagining it, but it looked like the bad nodes I had before. Also, the tech came back after taking the images to the radiologist and said he wanted the thyroid scanned. I’m pretty worried. Anybody have any words of wisdom that will make me less scared? It’s got to be ok. Not sure how much more my daughter and I can handle.

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited February 2021
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    MO has not responded with results, though I was told they’d be in end of day yesterday. I’m so worried I’m nauseous and almost in tears.

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited February 2021
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    Update for future readers searching this topic, MO said nothing to biopsy. They couldn't find any abnormal nodes on ultrasound. The one that was there before is apparently gone, or is in any event not abnormal.Imaging indicates Thyroid is most likely wonky, but no imaging concerns about cancer there either. Breathing again.

  • beesie.is.out-of-office
    beesie.is.out-of-office Member Posts: 1,435
    edited February 2021
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    Yay!! That’s great news!


  • nola70115
    nola70115 Member Posts: 61
    edited February 2021
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    That’s great news. If you were still waiting I was going to say that’s good, because when they get back to you right away you KNOW something is up

  • 2019whatayear
    2019whatayear Member Posts: 468
    edited February 2021
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    Oh this is wonderful! I'm so happy your results were good! Thanks for sharing!

  • kmom57
    kmom57 Member Posts: 165
    edited February 2021
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    Beesie, Nola and 2019, thanks so much for the support. It really means a lot.

  • LivinLife
    LivinLife Member Posts: 301
    edited February 2021
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    Great News!!! Thanks for letting us know!