Hodgkins survivor with neck lump and night sweats

[Greg1964]

I had Hodgkin's Disease in 1990 and have been in remission ever since. In late January I had two benign lipomas removed from my back. I was not concerned about this until I started having drenching night sweats a couple weeks before the surgery. After the surgery I found a lump in my neck, that my regular doctor had missed during an examination the day before. I had a surgeon examine it in a post-op visit and he said he could not tell what it was, but not to worry. It was too small to be anything serious. He said that they would need to wait until something, "clinically significant" happened to take a closer look at it.

My regular doctor felt the same way, so I fired him and went to an internist. She referred me to an ENT and I have an appointment on March 7. Here are my symptoms:

Night sweats for 7 weeks, 2-3 drenching per week.
A swollen lymph node of about 1 centimeter in the left side of my neck. Possibly the same node from 18 years ago.
There do not appear to be any other swollen nodes, but it is hard to tell from just touching the neck.
The internist described the node as rubbery, moveable and not "matted."
I have lost 12 pounds in the past six weeks.
On my last blood test my lymphocyte % was 18.3%. Slightly below normal. My Dr. was not concerned.
The rest of the bloodwork was normal. WBC were about 10K, which is a little high, but normal range.
No obvious signs of infection.
I have not run a fever once in the past 7 weeks.

My big worry is that given the attitude of the other doctors that I will get blown off and told to wait until something more significant happens. At the very least what tests should I demand from the ENT? Should I demand a biopsy at this point? If this is some sort of lymphoma does waiting a few months for something more obvious to show up hurt my prognosis?

[iam1butterfly]

The same thing happened with my 80 year old mom. About a year and a half ago she experienced daily night sweats; a swollen lymph node on the right side of her throat and a severe rash with itch. She went from her family doctor... to an ENT... to a dermatologist... to an immunologist... to an oncologist...to finally, a surgeon. The conclusion was that she had Hodgkin's Disease, which could only be detected by undergoing a surgical biopsy (the needle biopsy conducted by the ENT was inconclusive.) A recent CT and PET scan showed that she had yet, another swollen lymph node that had not responded to the chemotherapy for the treatment of the Hodgkin's Disease. A needle biopsy of that lymph node was inconclusive. However, a surgical biopsy showed that she was positive for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I think that you should insist on having a surgical; not a needle (aspiration) biopsy... even though the doctor will probably suggest the needle biopsy. I believe that the surgical approach is the only sure way to know if you have Cancer... Good luck!

[Jamie161]

I have the same exact symptoms!  
I am a Hodgkin's survivor, and have only been in remission for 3 months.  I was Stage IV B.  I've had night sweats for 5 weeks and just found a lump today at the top of my spine, approx 1 inch.  I have a pea sized lymph nodes in my left neck area.  Please email me at ***@**** if you find an answer, I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow hopefully.  

Thanks,
Jamie

[Beau1961]

A CT scan and maybe a Biopsy sounds like the way to go. You are showing signs of  Non Hodgins Lymphoma. I am not a doctor, its I had to really push my doctors before I was finally diagnosed. It ended up I was Large B cell Stage 4. So I went through a lot. You have to catch it early. My prayers go out to you.

Ron