Hi Everyone,
In August I first noticed a strange soft swelling under my chin. It's maybe an inch in diameter, and I can only feel it when I run my hand backwards from my chin to my neck. It's remained pretty constant, but sometimes it seems more palpable than others. I'm at the University of Michigan, and I've been in to the Health Services several times about it. I've also had what I believe to be swollen lymph nodes on either side of my neck for as long as I can remember. The first timeI saw a doctor she said she could feel what I was talking about and referred me to an ENT. A month later, the first time I could get an appointment, I saw him. He said that my lymph nodes didn't seem to be anything to worry about (just more palpable than most), and that the mystery lump could be the result of an infection, though this doesn't make sense as it's been consistently there for 3 months now. I went to see a different ENT a month later and he, again, said that he didn't think it was anything serious. He said that it's probably a blockage of some sort and that it might work itself out. I looked into swollen salivary glands, though I don't think this is it because I haven't had any problems with a dry mouth or anything. What else could be blocked? UHS is notorious for always being busy and not very thorough, so I'm not satisfied with any of the consultations I got. It's good to know that its not anything really scary (i was freaking out about lymphoma or other horrible things for a while), but it's still really annoying and, to be vain, I hate the way it looks. It really bothers me.
It's not incredibly obvious to the eye, but here's a picture that somewhat shows it. I'm the one on the left, if that's not clear. You'll see the way the area beneath my chin kind of dips down instead of following the jawline back up. It's because of the lump underneath the skin.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/kri
sti_chick/n582256643_427854_1358.jpg
Does anyone have any ideas as to what this could be based on description and the picture? I don't even think I posted this in the right place, but insight would be appreciated nonetheless.