Hi all, hoping for some reassurance, a hand hold or anything really. Just please no scary stories to make this worse for me.
1st July I noticed a large swollen lymph node on the back of my 2 year old sons neck just below and behind his ear. He’d been a little unwell on and off with what I assume was slapped cheek (all of my children had the symptoms of this & my DDs turned into tonsillitis), sore throat, cough and runny nose for a few weeks prior. My glands easily swell to a similar size so I thought it’s probably just from that and it’ll be gone before the end of the week. It was still there on the Thursday so I made an appointment for the Friday where the gp said all of the glands in his neck are a little swollen and it’ll go down within 2 weeks and if not then come back.
But a few days later all of the glands swelled up to a similar size so he had half a golf ball on either side of the back of his neck behind his ears and he came down with a really sore throat and high temp which looked like tonsillitis….. (my daughter having just had tonsillitis and finished her antibiotics 3 days prior also became poorly again with the same as him high temp and another sore throat but hers went within 3 days). My DS was put on penicillin for 10 days which turned into 2 weeks after missing some doses. At some points during these 2 weeks his neck around his jaw became so swollen and sore he wouldn’t let me get him dressed or lie on his back he was in so much pain. My mother in law was adamant he had mumps and a pharmacist said it was glandular fever.
I called my GP during this time who said we need to finish the antibiotics. So he did and most of the swellings reduced slightly apart from the two that usually come up with tonsillitis and the two on the back of his neck. The rest around them were small and moveable.
Went back to GP a week ago who referred for bloods and scan. Stomach soft and no other areas with swollen lymph nodes. No other symptoms. Results last weds showed (not mumps or glandular fever) slightly low iron which is said is normal for toddler plus my DS doesn’t eat meat and drinks too much milk… Also slightly high platelets but likely caused by a) low iron b) penicillin for 10 days c) recently been poorly and had a nasty sting on leg. So he said he was fine with the bloods but he’d been thinking about it and found out the scan may not be for 2-3 months so had decided to refer him on to oncology regardless of bloods as his worst fear is missing cancer in a child. He said he really doesn’t think it is, but has to for his own peace of mind. But he doesn’t actually know what it is. So my anxiety blew up.
We saw a private ENT specialist yesterday who also didn’t know but agreed the nodes are really swollen and referred for scan but that’s 2 weeks away. He did say that it’s positive that he was looking at a healthy child, not a sick one. So that’s something?
I’ve scrolled through as many posts as I can find on this. I’ve found some similar but not much mentioning the size that his are. The big glands are probably an inch long themselves at the most but the soft tissue around them is swollen like maybe half the size of golf balls making it all look huge. Either side of his neck and below his jaw was rock hard two weeks ago but it’s all softer now. I’ve been prodding them which I was told by a GP when my daughter was small never to do as it makes them worse and take longer to go. Also the ENT Dr did this yesterday so they’re bigger again today. After going down slightly yesterday.
It just doesn’t sound or look good to me and I’m feeling the likely hood of him being one of these children with huge glands that take forever to go down is about the same as him having lymphoma.
He doesn’t have any other symptoms other than a hoarse voice which came on 3 days after finishing the antibiotics.
He’s always been a placid child and some days will chill with screen time most of the day and others be running around like a headless chicken for a full 12 hours with his siblings. I’m obviously over analysing that now.
Waiting for the oncology referral appointment to come through any day, it has been approved by a consultant.
Thanks if you made it this far. Please no scary stories 🙏