How hard are you supposed to press when checking lymph nodes?

[Ponsh]

So I've recently started to be better about monitoring my health after years of not really taking care of myself. I've been checking my lymph nodes and they feel ok but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Are supposed to press in quite hard or is it more of a gentle rub around the area? I have health anxiety so even when things feel normal end up convincing myself that I'm just not checking it right. Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂

You can't really feel lymph nodes easily on a healthy human.

I'd suggest that as you have anxiety checking something that you don't know how to interpret might not be the best thing for your mental health

If you're anxious, and don't know what you're doing, it's easy to convince yourself you've found some lymph nodes when there's really nothing out of the ordinary there. I agree that regularly checking for them is probably not a good idea.

@WaltzingBetty
@nocoolnamesleft

I get what yoir saying for but for me a part of helping my anxiety is staying on top of things rather than ignoring or avoiding them. I was just asking to make sure I was doing it right and have it off my mind. Thanks for your responses :)

Unfortunately I don't think this is something you can teach someone in this format. After learning about the underlying anatomy, the next step is to observe an expert doing it, several times. Then having a physically present expert who can see what you are doing (and knows what you should be finding having examined the patient themselves), who can talk you through it, and correct your technique. Then there are minor details like, for instance, cervical lymph nodes should be palpated from behind, which you can't do on yourself, however much you know what you're doing.

I know how to examine lymph nodes. I've been examining patients for 20 years. But if I try to feel for them in my own neck, I feel stuff that isn't there (proven not there on USS) because feeling on your own neck doesn't work properly.

*you're

@nocoolnamesleft
Thank you, this is really helpful. I guess I'll talk about it with my doctor when I next go in and go from there. Thanks again :)