swollen node at collar bone

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calamtykel
calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
edited February 2017 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

I was doing a neck massage last night becuase I was kinda sore from doing Wii Fit - when my hand slipped around to the front and along my collarbone, I felt a moving lump.  Apparently I have a lymph node that is swollen there on the mastectomy side.  :( 

I just got done with chemo in November.  Now I'm back in the "waiting" and "freaking" boat, to put it mildly.

I'm terrified - what if it's been there all along and is more cancer?  They took 12 axillary nodes and 2 were positve but this isn't an ax. node and is higher up - but we know BC cells can travel along the lymph system.  

I'm scared.  I'm SO scared.  I go today at 2 to see the doctor.  Really didn't wanna be doing this - just wanted to get back into my normal routine.

The thing that scares me is that when I went to have a second opinion with a breast surgeon back in July before my surgery- that surgeon stopped in the same spot and felt for a long time.  I didn't reacall that until now.  It was after I'd just had a sentinal node biopsy (my sentinal node was swollen - that's how I found the BC) and a breast biopsy so they may have just assumed it was reacting to all the trauma to that area. 

What happens if they find another node with cancer??  Will I have to have rads -- more chemo??  I'm so afraid.....and trying to be brave.  

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  • InTwoPlaces
    InTwoPlaces Member Posts: 354
    edited January 2011

    Calamtykel,

    I don't want to scare you any more than you are, but I believe that the 3rd level of lymph nodes is right under the collar bone (If I'm wrong please someone correct me)

    It's good that you have app to see the Dr today.

    (((((Hugs))))))

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  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited January 2011

    Oh gosh, I can understand why you're worried, and it's good you go to see the doctor today.  Have you had a PET/CT scan?  Did that node light up?  If it IS cancer, radiation would make sense to me, especially if the disease is limited to that area.  But of course, I'm not a doctor!

    In my case, I had cancer return to several lymph nodes in my neck, above the supraclavicular nodes.  Because it was isolated and a small amount of disease, my doctors' first choice for therapy would have been radiation except that that area had already been radiated.  So, it was chemo for me. 

    It's good that you're vigilant and staying on top of things!

    Please let us know how your appointment goes.

    Hugs to you,

    E

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  • calamtykel
    calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
    edited January 2011

    I had CT and bone scans in August, and a rib series of x-rays a couple of weeks ago becuase i pulled a shoulder muscle and they wanted to make sure it wasn't bone related.  At those times, nothing lit up.  UGH I hate this!

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  • calamtykel
    calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
    edited January 2011

    just got back from my onc.  Don't you know i get there and I can't find it.  SHE can't find it.  So after digging and poking and feeling, we gave up.  I did find it again in the car on the way home but as she said, maybe it was some kind of slippery tendon or something......??

    Anyway, she ordered an ultrasound of the area because as she said "I don't want you to think I don't believe you."    Since I'm so soon off of chemo (4 weeks) , she didn't feel it was a new recurrance, as she'd never seen that happen before.  If it was pre-exisiting, the scans I had four months ago would have picked it up. Got my tumor marker bloodwork back from December 13 and it was perfect.  

    So that's where it is right now!   I'll be a bit anxious until the ultrasound results come back,...but until then I'm going to try to relax and just live my life!

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  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited January 2011

    Oh good!  If your oncologist didn't feel anything alarming, that's a good sign.  I'm glad she's ordering the ultrasound anyway as you can't be tooooo careful with this stuff.

    Please let us know the results!

    E

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  • calamtykel
    calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
    edited January 2011

    I'm going in for surgery tomorrow morning to have it removed.  It is too tiny for the breast surgeon to biopsy.  I don't want to do this but I need to know..................really scared but at least we'll get some answers. 

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  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited January 2011

    Good luck! You are in my prayers tonight!

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  • calamtykel
    calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
    edited January 2011

    I had the LN out yesterday.  The breast surgeon told my husband and friend that it looked like a normal LN (whatever that means - how can they possibly know by looking??) but of course that it needs to go to pathology to be fully examined.  I"m a little sore at the neck but my doctor told me my incision is extremely small and unless I'm touching it (which I'm not) it doesn't hurt or anything.  Apparently I had to be knocked out completely as I tried to leave under sedation... :D  I remember nothing of this.

    anyway, Monday or Tuesday we will have the results.  I'm so scared - -I hate this about cancer!  

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  • JennyB100104
    JennyB100104 Member Posts: 237
    edited January 2011

    LOL--I don't blame you for wanting to leave under sedation. That's a story you'll be able to tell!

    Praying for benign results.

    hugs,

    Jenny

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  • LRM216
    LRM216 Member Posts: 2,115
    edited January 2011

    Wishing you the best - and that is nothing cancer related.

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  • toomuch
    toomuch Member Posts: 901
    edited January 2011

    Hoping that the surgeons first impression are right and that it is just a normal node. I'll keep you in my prayers.

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  • calamtykel
    calamtykel Member Posts: 1,187
    edited January 2011

    My husband called the surgeon tonight who took out the node Friday.  Path report is in - she called him back -  benign lymph node!   WOOT!  I was so scared - I could find nothing good about supraclavical nodes!!  We don' t know why it was enlarged - but perhaps from the trauma of the surgery several months ago and it just stayed that way. 

    I'm so happy tonight.  I know it feels like we're never out of the woods --that is the true horror of this disease,  but for tonight I'm just rejoicing, thanking the Lord and being happy.  :)  

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  • Vidyaansh
    Vidyaansh Member Posts: 5
    edited February 2017

    hi I have hardness under collarbone the place where I had mastectomy..nothing showed up on X-ray ..but m

    Concerned as I am having severe pain in shoulder n arm which comes and goe

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