Lymphoma and tonsils

[Coll83]

Hi

After sole advice my husband is being tested for lymphoma he has a lump on his neck that hasnt gone away in 4 months suffers with night sweats night fever generally feeling tired all time and recently his neck is starting to ache saw consultant yesterday who is organising urgent biopsy ct and mri scan they gave him a once over the nurse made a point of telling consultant his left tonsil is also swollen and inflamed. He has no sore throat etc that you would get with tonsillitis so was shocked when she said this.

Its only when came home and googled it that it can either me a sign of lymphoma or a form or lymphoma has anyone known lf this also i can read blood results because of the job i do as consultant was talking his bloods were up on screen. His calcium is high which ive read can be another sign of cancer and his mch was high another sign also. The consultant wouldnt tell us either way what his thought was just we needed biopsy and images.

His cousin had lymphoma 2 years ago but it came bk and unfortunately he passed away this year can it run in families
Im really worried hubby isnt he reckons it will be a cyst!

[Ken_PA]

Hi, if I were looking for another possibility besides lymphoma, I might think of tuberculosis, which can cause a swollen neck lymph node and can also make calcium go high (because of increased calcitonin).

What is his age? How fast did the bump grow on his neck and is it still growing? How big is it?

[Coll83]

Hi his ct scan showed no lymphoma so discharged from blood doc however it showed that the salivary gland is bulky and there is a shadow also they said that there is an area of soft tissue in the lung enlarged i think they called it thoras thirus? That may need a biopsy he has been passed to ent specialist

[Coll83]

Thanks he has had ct with contrast but the surgeon cant fit him in for biopsy till next week. He has found another lump at the base of his neck almost collar bone regoin  id say again a squigy small grape size. He is feeling more exhausted each day the sweats are now in the day also and has episodes of high temp spiking for an hour or so then coming bk down

[Ken_PA]

If the new bump is in the hollow which is immediately above the collar bone, that indicates some problem in the chest/abdomen below. But if it's higher up, we're still talking about something only in the head/neck.

With that new neck bump seeming to have come up so quickly from nothing, that's reason to hope it's not lymphoma. The same goes if any bumps are movable.

Ask the surgeon right after the biopsy about how things looked to the naked eye.

Don't his CBCs show anything indicating infection?

[Coll83]

Its about the size of a grape but there is alot of general swelling also on the left side of his neck

[Ken_PA]

Then that size, around an inch, is big enough to cause worry and that's why they want a biopsy ASAP. (But it wouldn't be as much of a worry if it got that big overnight.)

Having general swelling around the node is not usual for lymphoma, though - unless he's possibly been rubbing it a lot.

Good luck with the biopsy.

[Ken_PA]

Well, since he's fairly young it's probably not Multiple Myeloma, which is infamous for hypercalcemia. He apparently doesn't have the bone pain that usually goes with MM, either.

An ultrasound could have helped, but since he's already got a biopsy scheduled there's unfortunately nothing to do but wait for the results of that. Maybe it's tuberculosis, you can do a websearch to see if that is in the area where you live. Immigration has brought tuberculosis to areas where it had previously been eradicated. If it is lymphoma, then you can be aware that there are different types, which have different outcomes. Some respond very well to treatment. Some can be cured. Some types might run in families, others not.

There's probably very little chance of it being a cyst, because of all the other symptoms he has.

Since I don't know the size, I can't make any further guesses.

Good luck to you and your husband.

[Coll83]

He is 37 he first noticed the lump in may and it has continued to grow he is now feeling achey all thr time and is sweating not just at night but in the day too and his temp his going up to over 37.6 then comes down again for no reason