Could it be lymphoma?

[jambo53]

Hi there I am a 20 year old male and I have plenty of symptoms to go through that I worry may all be connected. It started 2 and a half years ago when I started getting pains on the left side of my chest, these pains can be anything from sharp pains, dull aches or a burning sensation. These pains seem to take place anywhere from above my heart and in a line diagonally across to below my armpit. For  2 and a half years these pains have been ever present. They are pains I have been able to live with and am still living with them. Recently in the past year I can say I've been through a lot. I've discovered that I have celiac disease and I have also had a pneumothorax on my right hand sided lung. When this pneumothorax occurred in February I wasn't aware of what it was and thought I was dying so I went to A and Eand they took X-rays and that's when they discovered the pneumothorax which was a relief I suppose as there was no shadows or anything of the like as I was sure I had cancer. I have had an X-ray since in July which was all clear too and I have also had all my blood work done which for the most part was all healthy. Now on to my symptoms which make me believe that I have lymphoma. Basically in January of this year I was in my bedroom playing my Xbox and for the past day my left armpit was aching quite substantially, now I had just changed deodorant and thought this may be why, so I began to feel around my left armpit and noticed a small lymph node and started freaking out a bit. From this point on I kept an eye on it and within a month or two it hadn't grown nor disappeared. Now, this was the only area I kept an eye on so I decided to feel more deeply in to my armpit a few months on and noticed there was also a couple more very very small lymph nodes and then a small marbled size one(probably the biggest). It is now nearly December and these lymph nodes to my awareness have stayed the same size. My other two most recent symptoms are night sweats which I'm not sure if it's because of my duvet cover on my bed which is a new cover as from the first day I got it I noticed I was sweating under it as it is quite heavy and heat can't really escape it. My other symptom is constant itching( mainly when I'm relaxed and in the house doing nothing), this concerns me also as I read it's a lymphoma symptom. I seen my doctor last week for the first time about all my lymphoma symptoms and at the time I only brung up the lymph nodes and my persistent 2 and a half year left sided chest problems as I thought the two may be connected and he felt under my left armpit and said he certainly wasn't concerned about the nodes as they weren't big in his mind at all and that I'm incredibly skinny it's easier to feel them and he told me lymphoma nodes would be considerably larger. He then told me that he however wanted to offer me to get all my bloods taken that he would take in suspicion of lymphoma and also because back when I got tested for celiac it came up that I had some sort of low vitamin B count or something and he said that may mean I was vitamin b deficient. So anyway I have had the bloods taken and I was phoned asking to come in and see him regarding the blood tests but luckily I have already booked in to see him and will see him tomorrow. He thinks I'm a massive hypochondriac which I suppose to some extent I am but these symptoms all seem to mimic lymphoma so I am going to ask him regardless to refer me to see someone who maybe would have more insight and I can enquire about more testing. Any thoughts on this would be great I know there are people out there with great insights, could this really be lymphoma? I'm so sure of it and I'm scared as heck

[jambo53]

Would you suggest keeping an eye on the nodes in my armpit for growth? If they don't continue to grow then they wouldn't be considered suspicious would they?

[Ken_PA]

Also this:
https://www.marfan.org/familial-aortic-aneurysm

which you'd want to hopefully rule out, since the chest pain can be a sign of a bad condition.

Your step one is to see if you fit with many of the physical characteristics, such as tall and very thin, sunken chest, wrapping fingers around your wrist. Possibly scoliosis. Bad eyesight. Then you can use that to convince your doc to evaluate you further for Marfans.

I mentioned the famous Joey Ramone so you can see if you also are like him psychologically. Everything might fit for you if you have Marfans, like maybe having OCD and being high intensity.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/200/6/453

Can you print this one from an "authoritative website" and take it with you:
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/mar/signs

Good luck with your appointment tomorrow. Let me know how it goes.

[jambo53]

Hi there, I'm just back from my GP and he gave me the results of my bloods which do in fact show that I have a vitamin B deficiency. So that's that. I then told him about sweating at night and he mentioned a heavy duvet cover could cause that and to keep an eye on it but he said otherwise my bloods shown no sign of anything to be worried about other than the vitamin B thing. I then asked about possibly being referred to see someone about the left side of my chest and he said that he can't refer me to see someone on the NHS if he doesn't see reason and he said that with having had ECGs and X-Rays and all my bloods taken there isn't much grounds for him to have reason to refer me and he said there was also no reason to refer for anything regarding lymphoma as he isn't concerned about my glands or anything at all. He then made me aware that any problems on my left side of my chest are most likely muscoskeletal and also mentioned chostocondritis. He also told me that a Vitamin B deficiency can damage nerves too so that could be one of the possible reasons for my chest pain. Anyway he has gave me pills to take for the Vitamin B thing and I'm to go back in February. Guess in the meantime I'll need to get on with things and hope I don't end up getting really ill or anything and that he's right.

[jambo53]

And why don't you think it's lymphoma?

[Ken_PA]

Hi, not likely to be lymphoma. But look at this:
https://www.marfan.org/about/body-systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfan_syndrome

which includes collapsed lung and many other symptoms, including with the immune system. Are you extremely flexible?

Ever hear of Joey Ramone?