If you have swollen lymph nodes. Please read this

I have horrible health anxiety and hypochondria. Any little change or blemish I freak out and turn to doctor google. As we know doctor google is not for people like us lol.

Back in March I suffered with some throat infection and a few weeks later in the shower I noticed a pretty decent bump in my right neck. Of course I freaked out for a moment as google told me it’s a lymph node and I have some form of cancer or STD. Of course google also said to just see if it goes down/gets bigger and not to jump the gun.

I have spent the last couple months googling the same things over and over again and during that time I kept pushing and poking the lymph node literally every 5 seconds I would touch it. Didn’t matter if I was driving, working, watching a movie or cooking I had my hand on that spot.

I then started to do neck inspections, I would run my hands along my neck and I started to even dig in my collarbone(really rough also). Months after the first lymph node I found a tiny pea sized one at the bottom of my right neck and again freaked out.

Then a few months after that I found another pea sized at the top of my left neck and then a month ago I was digging in my collarbone and I hurt myself and then days later found a HUGE rock hard lymph node.

This all sent me into a horrible panic, I was convinced I had lymphoma or some form of cancer. Convinced myself it was metastatic cancer from somewhere else.

As I did with my original lymph node, I started poking and pinching these lymph nodes and continued googling and freaking out.

I never went to the doctor because I’m those types of hypochondriac where I won’t go to the doctor, I’ll just diagnose myself and cry about it.

Well, low and behold when I stop touching them, they instantly go down. The original one on my neck was almost completely gone but I started touching it again and it would flare up. Now my nodes never got huge and they have only decreased in size. Even the rock hard one in my collarbone is almost completely gone.

I spoke with a doctor and they told me that our bodies are amazing, they will fight viruses and illnesses and we won’t even know and these lymph nodes are just doing their jobs and if they get inflamed they may never go back down fully and will swell up again if we get sick.

My advice to everyone I see posting about lymph nodes, go to the doctor for your peace of mind but DON’T play with them, I am confirmation that if you play with them and hurt them they can’t heal. Don’t google and don’t diagnose.

Go to the doctor when worried but also know that our bodies are keeping us healthy and just because you notice something different doesn’t mean we are dying.

I am still learning this myself and I still google things but I know it’s reassuring to hear from people that have similar skin/body issues that turn out to be normal and not worst case scenario.

I’m here to talk with anyone that needs it :)