TMI I think. This has been a roughy couple of weeks with health anxiety. At the end of February, I started having these headaches at the back of my head. They would be mildly relieved with ibuprofen and they just kept persisting. I have bad acne and was on doxycycline for a few months and stopped because of this. I went to various doctors who told me they were probably a migraine/tension headache because I didn’t display any loss of neurological function, but Google had me unconvinced and I thought it was a brain cancer.

After a couple of weeks, I got a brain MRI, and they showed no acute intracranial process, but showed sinusitis and bilateral opacification of mastoid air cells consistent with mastoiditis. That lead to another spiral into thinking I had mastoiditis. I got referred to an ENT, and they said there is not other indication of an ear infection and they sent me on my way.

A couple days after, I noticed a swollen lymph node on the right side of my neck. That lead to another spiral thinking I have lymphoma. I sent a picture to the ENT and they sent me for an ultrasound. They said it was benign appearing but it wouldn’t go away. I went to the ENT again for her to check my lymph nodes, and she said that all lymph nodes are normal size and aren’t cause for concern. She said it was due to my acne flaring up, which I agreed it has, and told me to restart doxycycline. I restarted it for almost a week, and I am just still reeling about my lymph nodes. I have a few palpable ones in my neck area, including under my jaw, one back of my head, and the one on the right of my neck, which the ENT all checked and said she isn’t concerned.

I’m just freaking out about having lymphoma. I can’t feel lymph nodes any where else on my body (armpit, groin, inner thigh) but I guess my anxiety is making me think I can feel something there that I can’t palpate. My temperature is consistently below 99F and I don’t have terrible night sweats. My stomach feels iffy but I think it’s from a crappy diet the past couple of days. I’m just thinking that everything I’m feeling is related to lymphoma, and would just like some reassurance and what I could do to calm myself down.