Hello everyone, I'm a long time reader of this board, but this is my first post.

For as long as I can remember (at least 6-8 years, but it may have been around even longer than that), I'm had a lump the size of a pea in my left Posterior Cervical area of the neck. From the best I can tell, it's never gotten any bigger, and it was never tender (although it is a little tender now, as I've been constantly rubbing it for the past two weeks ). It is mobile when I push on it and I would say has a rubbery consistency.

I've had it checked out by 2 GPs and a nurse, and no one seems concerned about it, saying it just must be a lymph node. I don't seem to have any other symptoms that would suggest lymphoma.

However, my doctor didn't tell me a reason why it may be chronically "enlarged". When I was a child (I'm 21 now), I constantly had ear injections. From lurking around forums and webpages I found what is called a "Shotty Lymph Node", which sort of seems to describe my problem.

What just worries me is that I've read that some lymphomas can be slow growing, but I'm not really sure how slow is "slow". Would I have noticed a significant enlargement of the lymph node by now is there was some sort of malignancy?

Thanks in advance for any help you may have!