Just got back from trip to see the ENT and the Oncologist for follow up to the surgery to my cheek. These are the two guys that can't agree on what side of the planet the sun rises on.

So I've been a little anxious about an area on my neck just below my right jaw, behind the artery there that seemed swollen slightly. More so in the morning, not so much in the afternoon, and then again slightly at night. Had both of them check, neither can find/feel anything, so may be my imagination. Oncologist, who is the cautious one, suggested post surgery/radiation that's the way my neck is healing.

Also discovered a few days ago a small hard slightly less than a pea size lump just behind the front of my jaw in the center. Had both look, one thinks calcification, one thinks scar tissue/residual from chemo/rad. Both commented that it's really hard, too much to be a tumor, and not positioned correctly to be base of tongue cancer.

But, just to be sure, have my normal follow up PET/CT scheduled for the 20th, then immediatly after a FNA on the lump in the chin. This thing is hard folks, I'm not too sure how they're going to get a needle into it.

Anybody had anything similar happen?

We'll see
Take care
Bob

Hi Bob,

I can tell you that for more than a year I didn't want to touch or feel my neck. Then when I did sure enough I found all kinds of lumps and scary things. Then I'd go see the ENT and get a clean check. Frankly I don't know what the heck they are feeling for (occasionally I wonder if they know either ). I have several pea size (or smaller) hard lumps near the radical neck incision. Apparently they aren't anything to worry about, they have been there a long time now. I also have had little areas of painfull swelling right near the artery that if massaged gently the pain immediatly goes away. I have decided that it is some kind of fluid buildup either lymph or perhaps blood. (I always wanted to ask my ENT what happens to the larger blood vessels that are permenantly cut and closed off during surgery.) In your case I would think if it were serious it wouldn't come and go.


I still recall my ENT's quote when I asked him "what should I be looking for?" His response was to grab both my shoulders and say "you just let us do the worrying for you!" I have to remind myself of that offer every now and again.

Anyway I hope your scan and tests come back OK.

Please be sure and have the pea sized lump checked out right away. Marcy had the same thing under her chin. The doctor thought maybe it was a suture? He pain continued for 2 weeks before she went back in the ER. In two weeks this pea sized lump had doubled in size and spread to other areas of her neck--it too was hard as a rock, they all are. After a biopsy it confirms cancer recurrence, not suture. Be sure to watch out for yourself and request a bx when you think it is necessary. If they would have biopsied Marcy right away they would have found out two weeks earlier. They also took a MRI and found out she had skull mets, that is why the terrible headaches, not due to post radiation and surgery as they had told her for 2 months.
Good luck,
Michelle
Marcy's sister