Possible lymphoma. One swollen tonsil.

[partridge]

Does anyone have any experience of this? Slightly beside myself - got appointment with ent on wed so hope to know more then, but we have been warned that they will probably take his tonsils out to biopsy them.

Ds is 3 1/2 and has snored loudly for probably a year. Last week he had a temperature of 40 and general lethargy. I took him to the doctor who saw one v large asymmetric tonsil (not red or pussy). She has referred us to the ent. Rationally I know the likelihood of non-hodgkins or hodgkins in a child this young is v rare, but with a long wait ahead google is becoming my best friend and worst enemy! He is generally v well, eats like a horse, never ill. He has lost weight (don't they all at this age - he has also grown over a foot in a year?) and sometimes sweats at night (not drenching).

If he had a lymphatic cancer would he recover totally in 24 hours from the fever? Going round in circles here but would love some rl experiences to relate to. Thank you in advance.

No experience with lymphoma, but my DS had one huge swollen tonsil for quite a long time when he was 3 or 4 - that's crazy, can't remember now and he's only almost 8 now - anyway, his doctor said it's fine, sometimes it takes long time to go down etc, so we left it, Then a few months later he was with his dad in Montpellier and got a bit sick so they went to A&E in this renowned hospital and the doctor there made a big deal of it, saying how it was only on one side etc, etc, so he had them taken out ( oh misery of it, poor kid talked like a girl for a week and was in serious pain). Anyway, when the doctor removed the tonsils, he realised that the other one was big as well but was hidden inside iyswim, so they couldn't see it before. So, they took it for tests, but it was fine.
I would not panic yet, obviously am not a doctor but lymph nodes can do funny things and it doesn't always mean it's something serious.
Oh, and my DS always used to sweat A LOT at night- I think it's only been a year or so that he stopped. The pillow would wet an hour after he went to bed, but in the morning he was dry- never figured the reason for it.
Good luck and please let us know how the appointment with ent will go.

Maybe it would be a good idea to ask for a scan, so they can compare the size of both tonsils before going ahead with the removal?

Thank you so much. Could you tell me the size difference? Ds tonsil is half way across his throat and v round. Other one normal.

His was, when you looked straight into his throat, almost or actually reaching the uvula iirc, I would say half the throat width. It was huge and I think round. The other one was normal.

Thank you. I couldn't have hoped for a quicker and more reassuring answer. Will keep you posted.

I always had one huge tonsil as a child. As winnybella said, probably because it was sitting differently from the other one.

Even now it's much bigger than the other, though both have reduced (or my mouth has grown and they haven't) but clearly it isn't going to be something nasty after all this time.

So don't panic and good luck on Wednesday.

Just to add to the reassuring responses, OP, I did a thread a few months back on this. DS is 4 and after we'd been on holiday he had a virus for around 6/8 weeks. He was exhausted, no antibiotics would crack it, he was really ill. And during this period he had one gigantic tonsil, which scared the living daylights out of me. But eventually it went down, and it seems that it is just his weak spot - whenever he is run down it gets large.

A few weeks later I had another sanity saving conversation with a wonderful ent guy, who we were actually seeing about dd, but I took the opp to ask him about ds. He said its really really common and, whilst good to get checked out, is usually harmless.

It doesn't sound at all like he has a serious illness, but you are of course doing the sensible thing of making sure. Good for you. My ds1 sweats buckets every night. It never occurred to me there might be anything wrong with him. Losing weight is a bit weird though - I would def talk to a doc about that.

I had a really swollen tonsil for years, I had tonsilitis once and it never went down. I had them both taken out about 6 years ago, they were sent for a biopsy but came back as just inflammation.

Hi Partridge. Please try not to worry. I have recently been through a very similar thing with my 5 year old DS. I took him to the doctors back in August because he had an earache. While the GP was examining him she noticed that he had one large tonsil so refered him to an ENT consultant. I did exactly the same and googled everything I could find on Lymphoma ! It turned out to be just a huge tonsil. THe consultant said that quite often one tonsil looks bigger but it is just the position of it in the throat and when he removes them they are in fact the same size. In my DS's case he didn't think that a tonsillectomy was necessary. He told me to bring him back in three months and if it hadn't done anything by then it was definitely not Lymphoma as it grows very quickly. He suggested we had blood tests done to eliminate anything else nasty which we did and they came back fine. I then took him for a second opinion. As we had decided not to go ahead with a tonsillectomy I wanted to find out more about the time scale of a Lymphoma and to make sure that we had made the right decision. The second consultant specialised in Lymphomas and he said that our DS just had a big tonsil. He said that Lymphoma in children is an extremely fast growing thing and that it was impossible that he had one as it would have presented itself by now. He also said that there is no way that he would suggest him having his tonsils out as it would be unnecessary in this case. Anyway just wanted to try and stop you worrying about Lymphoma because I drove myself crazy about it and it all turned out fine. Good Luck for Wed. I am sure he will be fine.

Thank you so much. Charliebean, could you tell me the size difference? I just have no idea how long it has been there, which is so frustrating, but it is really huge. I suppose the snoring for nearly a year is a good thing, as it implies it's been there for ages. I also suppose the difference between a rather alarmist gp and an ent consultant looking at it will be huge. Perhaps he won't need it out after all.

Thank you all for your replies. After 6 days of googling this is the most reliable info yet!

Hi Partridge. The large tonsil basically takes up that whole half of his throat. It touches his Uvula (the little dangly thing !!). I asked the consultant if this would affect him in any way at all (I was worried about him choking) and he said no. He said that it had probably always been that size but I have just never noticed it before.

How did it go, partridge?

Please try not to worry! One of my twins had a suspected lymphoma at age 4 because he had swollen tonsils and was constantly vomiting. He's always been v v slim too. I was frantic, like you. They took out his tonsils, did a biopsy and all was well and afterwards, I realised that it's almost what they HAVE to do, to rule out lymphoma and I don't know the statistics but I expect LOADS of children have tonsils out and biopsied just as a precaution.

He's now 8, still skinny, growing tall and still freqently vomits - but it hasn't bene nearly so much since his tonsils came out and he certainly gets fewer viruses than he did too.

It might help also to know that his much plumper twin has sweating at night, snores loudly and has frequent diarrhoea BUT BUT has never been suspected of having lymphoma.

Finally, I'm another one who had HUGE tonsils as a child, one always much bigger than the other and they're still in there and I'm fine.

What I'm getting at is that you can have all kinds of symptoms and signs but be totally OK or certainly not have lymphoma.

The sooner you get reassurance the better and I know it's impossible not to worry but the chances are he's absolutely fine and the doctors are only doing what they have to do to go through their check lists.

Hope it was ok, partridge?

my dd, 14, has had one hugely swollen tonsil since she was a toddler (touching the uvula in the middle)

if there are any viruses knocking around it swells further and goes red/angry-looking

no doctor has ever suggested taking it out

what I am saying is that this sign does not necessarily mean that something serious is wrong

good luck x

I would wait until you see the ENT consultant.

Googling symptoms can be too scary.!

Easier sadi than done,I know.

In all likelehood it is somethingmuch less traumatic.

the appointment was today, was it ?

Op, any news ?

gotta love bloody google. ent appointment was fine and i am kicking myself for spending so much time obsessing over the negative case studies on google and obscure medical journals and not enough time listening to you lot.

he has basically advised the wait and see approach (just like charliebean's consultant) and said that the tonsillar fossa (pits where the tonsils lie) is much shallower on the right side, hence the appearance of the huge tonsil. he thinks it is basically an optical illusion, but i have to watch for other suspicious symptons (particularly weight loss). he said that if it were his own child, he would definitely not opt for the tonsillectomy (although he did offer it) and i am happy with that.

thank you all for your really comforting advice, it has totally kept me sane the last few days. now i just have to work on undoing all the evil that relentlessly spoiling a 3 year old has done in the last couple of weeks!

Glad things look OK.

lymphoma in little ones thankfully rare in general population.

(Am haem nurse}

Take care

oh, good news

btw, I once completely convinced myself I had motor neurone disease because my legs were a bit twitchy

Oh, good. You must be very relieved