can you feel your lymph nodes?

[tuscanrose]

I'm having a bit of health anxiety about some lymph nodes in my neck.... There are a couple I can feel on the left side of my neck - they are less than pea-sized but definitely palpable, very soft and very movable. You can't see them but I can feel them when I dig around. I stupidly googled and from what I gather no lymph nodes should be 'palpable'. I've had these for about six months and I've been well the whole time. I did go and see a GP who said he thought they felt fine but it's really hard to tell what's considered 'normal' or not when it comes to lymph nodes! Can anyone else feel theirs? I'm I being overly-panicky?!

[Dianet77]

I thought I was alone with health anxiety!! And google is both great and awful...I've googled until I ruled out horrible things and been scared out of my wits by thinking I had horrible things. I do understand that I do this unconsciously as a way to "control" life...I worry and worry and then I find out nothing is wrong so I feel relief. But to live with constant worry is not a way to live in true happiness. I irritate my darling husband to no end by asking him to "feel this" over, and over again until he gets exasperated. I see new areas of concern almost weekly...ie my pee is too yellow...my elbow has a bump, etc etc and I do ask my doctor about all and I go to the doctor for bloodwork annually as well as pap, and mammo etc but I am so anxious until the call or report comes back. I know I am so very blessed and its not about that, this HA...I truly think it is a way we somehow deal with stress, but it increases stress...thought I would jump in and give my "two cents" because so many posts remind me of me. God Bless everyone, and lets all try together to stop this pattern. XOXOXO

[aceoface]

I still feel my lymphnodes after I got dengue virus 4 months ago, I feel well and healthy, but I'm still worrying, does it stays permanently after that nasty virus?

[johashimotos]

hi all I'm so happy I came across this thread!
I have felt this lump on the left side near where Adams apple would be since 2012 doe any one feel one there???
all ultra sounds have come back clear but I'm wondering what it could be I can feel it when I swallow. I came across it by accident & went to the GP whom preformed test I ended up having hashimotos thyroiditis

[Evzen]

hi all I'm so happy I came across this thread!
I have felt these lymph nodes on my neck, I googlefreaked my self out, then I read the posts here and realised that I must have twin sisters out there.
Why do they say that about how any node that is palpable is pathologic?
it freaks us slim people out, evidently from this post it is obvious that for slim people it is healthy and good that we can feel some of our lymph nodes.
I think we would make a super funny, no, hilarious group of people, far out, imagine it, if we were all together in a room, having these experiences. I did notice that when people laugh at my ridiculous freekouts that I find that very soothing as I realise how silly I'm being, my ex was great at that. She would just kind of stare at me with the look of "you can't be serious".
love you all my twin sisters

[Eae92]

I'm so glad I found this thread. I completely empathize with all of you with HA. I've had HA for a couple of years, since having my second child. I'm always searching my body for "abnormalities" and of course always find SOMETHING that I have to hope is nothing. I live in the USA, and don't have health insurance, which only fuels my HA because if I had something I'd never be able to afford treatment, but make too much money for free insurance. About 3 weeks ago laying in bed searching my neck (which I didn't normally check) but I'd recently read an article about lympoma that scared me. I found a small, probably smaller than pea sized, very movable lump, which may be a lymph node. Well tonight, I found another one next to it. They're both along the right side of my neck towards the back. My husband says he can't feel anything. They're there. Anyways, I freaked, decided I need to go to the hospital TONIGHT because there's obviously something horribly wrong because everything on google says you should never be able to feel lymph nodes unless something is wrong. Then I found you guys on this thread, tons of other women who can definitely also feel their lymph nodes and I am now going to relax and enjoy my evening. Thank you everyone who shared their experiences.

[calliealbert]

Usually lymph nodes are not enlarged and thus not able to be felt, but if you have previously had an infection (such as tonsillitis) you may have noticed and felt lymph nodes becoming enlarged, painful and tender.

[reward92]

So thankful to have found this thread. It's eased some of the anxiety I've had for the past month. I've been finding lymph nodes on my neck/chin area for about a month now (probably always been there) but it's causing me extremely bad health anxiety. Bloods are fine and I've been referred for an ultrasound so I'm hoping all comes back fine.. the Dr's don't seem concerned so I have to take some reassurance from that but as I'm sure everyone on here knows it's not as simple as that. I have an 11 month old son and my mind keeps skipping to awful scenarios where I'm not here to see him grow, it's absolutely breaking my heart.

Instead of googling, next time I go into a frenzy, I'm just going to come and read this thread again. Much more reassuring than Google.