Another question about my yearly physical with my PCP today. As I've mentioned in past notes here, I've been had this swollen lymph node under my right arm about the size of a golf ball.
My LLMD said this often happens with bartonella and I'm on treatment for that, but since he knew I had a physical coming up with my PCP, he told me to have her just check it out to make sure we aren't calling "ALL symptoms tick illnesses".
In any case, I had been to her several months ago with this and she didn't seem concerned about it. I was due for a mamogram anyway and that seemed to come back clean and I figured it was a forgotten topic.
Today, I'm in for the physical and she's checking out this lymph node and said she wanted to ultra sound it, so I'm going in on Monday for that.
I really imagine it's bart related, so I'm not losing any sleep over it, but was wondering if anyone has ever had an ultra sound on any of their lymph nodes and if so, what they might be saying about it (PCP, not LLMD) after getting results.
Will there be anything that shows up that would point to bart? She said it could be a cyst or all sorts of things but just wants to check it. Assuming it's bart, what might they "ducks" tell me this actually is?
I'm sure if it isn't bart, I'll hear that, but knowing they don't know much about any tick borne illnesses, I was just wondering what I can expect or if I'm tossing money in the garbage with this test.
Cathy
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
Sorry I don't have the detailed answers you are looking for. WELL fiddle.. And now I forgot totally what I was going to say. Duh me.
Oh, ok. If your LLMD thinks it should be checked.. it should. Glad you are going to do it. It shouldn't be painful, invasive and/or take too long... so I would go for it.
If it is Bart related, or even if not, I'd like to hear what the non-LLMD has to say about it too.
Wish I could help more.. but you've got me stumped.
Hey! You stumped the chump. And what a way for me to be on a Friday night!
A stumped chump.
Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
Thank you TC for being honest and admitting you don't know something. Wow.....you can't ruin your reputation out here like that.
But I wasn't worried about pain or bad effects from an ultra sound. I was more interested in just knowing if others had ever had any of these swollen lymph nodes checked in this manner.
I know when I first started having them swell, there were many that stepped forward and said they too had them with bartonella, so I'm SURE that's all it is so will stay on my Levaquin, but since this is basically a "duck" doing the ultra sound, I was just wondering what even a bartonella lump may come up as looking as.
I go in Monday and will probably hear the same I heard back when I was trying to get a diagnosis... you know..."nothing is wrong". Perhaps I am just crazy, it's all in my head, can't find anything wrong...or whatever and then it just makes my wallet lighter but no harm done.
Just wondering what others may have been told after an ultra sound on a swollen lymph node. And if it's bart, will they see anything a little different but just not know what it really is?
Cathy
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
I am hoping others who know or who have done this will answer here for you.
In the meantime... you said..
"But I wasn't worried about pain or bad effects from an ultra sound. I was more interested in just knowing if others had ever had any of these swollen lymph nodes checked in this manner."
Anyone out there had a swollen node checked by this method?
Please come un-stump the chump!
After all, it's Saturday night.. and as you must know it is not a good time for being a stumped chump! I'm sure of it!
Posted by tailz (Member # 10014) on :
I had an ultrasound of the inguinal lymph nodes (groin). Basically they measured them and told me they were "huge".
Needless to say, I wasn't very impressed, since we already knew that.
Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
Tailz,
I know it isn't funny, but your comment still made me laugh. Probably because I could see MY doctor telling me the report just says it's "big".
My question was honestly about whether these tests will tell ANY doctor ANYTHING. Or will I find this was just another thing to part me from my cash?
I'm going to do it this first time anyway, but as I said, it was a curiosity thing about what they might be telling me this looks like from a "duck" perspective.
Thank you TC. Guess most don't want to play "unstuck the chump". I will let you know what I find out after this test. I go in tomorrow and imagine they will tell me I won't know anything for a week or two, or whatever they use as procedures for this type of testing.
Cathy
Posted by Pure Lymie League (Member # 10421) on :
Hey Cathy, I had a lymph node biopsied, not ultra sound. The results were fibrosis due to chronic
inflamation. So they said everything was fine.
My first LLMD said, "and they didn't want to know why your lymph nodes were chronically inflamed"
I'm like you, every procedure seems like a to drain our bank accounts.
Good luck, Sara
Posted by Virginia of Yore (Member # 3269) on :
An ultrasound someone I know had showed inguinal nodes were enlarged (swollen for a year, gradually enlarging), but when a surgeon took a couple out, the main problem was actually a lipoma (benign fatty tumor) growing on top of them, which was irritating the nodes. Nodes were negative for cancer, lyme, and bartonella.
Posted by Peck (Member # 14526) on :
I've had a few "episodes" of enlarged lymph nodes. The scariest one was about 4 years ago. I had chest pain and upon checking with chest x'Ray they noticed I had 3 enlarged nodes around my aorta. The doctors in the hospital wanted to keep me in and do an invasive procedure right away. Fortunately I paused, more like NEARLY PASSED oUT, and went to see a pulmonary specialist who didn't see the reason to go in. At the time it was considered "viral", but I now know it was Lyme related. It took several months for them to go down but they did and without opening me up.
I am now so much more in tuned to my body so I don't panic, I just follow up.
Best of luck to you.
Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
Virginia,
I was actually told that they would be doing the ultra sound first and depending on that, they would decide if it needs to be biopsied or not.
But are you saying that if they do an ultrasound, they can "REALLY" tell if it is bartonella? Or is this another one of those tests that will be negative in high percentages?
I guess I'm not even sure what they are looking for in an ultra sound when they know it could just be bart related.
Pure,
That does seem like an odd diagnosis from your biopsy if they were just going to leave it at that and not try to find out WHY you had chronic infection. Gotta love our doctors, huh?
Peck,
Sounds like you went through a rough time. Glad you have been able to understand your body after this hardship. But what a way to learn, huh?
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