Hi

I’m 33 years old, 6 foot and currently 12 stone 7 pounds (175), smoker (was about 20 a day which has risen to 30 – 40 a day in the last 2 months. Situation is that for the past 6 weeks I’ve had swollen lymph nodes in my groin and neck. I have just been through an 11 week period of stress / anxiety, the last 6 of which has been excessive causing extreme muscle tension.

My current symptoms are 2 small swollen lymph nodes in groin (painful), 2 small swollen lymph nodes in my neck, inflamed tonsil (left). My chest / armpit area aches and is painful, but no doctor has told me that there are swollen lymph nodes there (I’ve seen 3 different doctors!). My throat has been sore throughout this period and a sneeze a small amount each day (2-5 times), my jaw feels swollen and aches, I also feel swollen beneath my jaw (left) and around the top of my windpipe on either side of my Adams Apple. I also have aching shoulders / top of back and my thighs ache a lot, both in the muscles and inside my leg which feels like a ligament. Pain in the crook of my arm (left, only recent) and whilst I don’t get extremely tired, I have been more tired than usual of late. I’ve also dropped about 14 pounds in the last 2 months, but whilst anxious I stopped eating properly and regularly (some days not eating at all). There are no other symptoms I can think of short of a few (10-14) red spots on my arms.

My last visit to the doctors was Monday of this week and she said she couldn’t medically find anything wrong, but if I’m still the same in a month she will refer me to a specialist. Over the last 3 months I have had numerous blood tests, urine tests and a chest x-ray – all have come back normal, I have another blood test scheduled for Friday, this time for Glandular Fever.

This is driving me absolutely crazy and I can’t seem to get an answer to what’s going on with my body.

About 7 weeks ago I did read about swollen lymph nodes on the internet and it was about a week after that when my node problems started, can anxiety / worry about your lymph nodes swelling actually cause them to swell? Also around the same time I did poke and prod myself a bit trying to find my lymph nodes to establish if they were swollen – could that have caused the problem and if so why have they not gone back down?

Can anyone shed any light on this or give me any advice? Feel between the aches/pains and the resulting worry about them this is making me extremely miserable.

Thanks
Kai