Welcome to OCF, Laura! Im sorry to read about all your medical issues. You are very, very fortunate to not have oral cancer which is what our website is almost entirely dedicated to. Please understand our site is made up of oral cancer patients/survivors and their caregivers... we are NOT medical professionals! That said, our members do NOT have years of medical school and/or clinical patient experience, know your entire medical history and all your other medical issues, etc. For answers to your questions its best to seek out your own doctor to help answer your concerns. Your doctor is who knows you best and should be the go-to person for any in depth conversations about your condition and the chances of picking up other more serious health concerns. If your own doctor is unable to answer your questions ask them to at least steer you in the right direction.

To partially address your questions.... Numerous things can cause lymph nodes to swell, many of them are not anything serious. Things like an infection, sickness, lupus, lymphoma, strep throat, mono, etc are all possible symptoms behind swollen lymph nodes. Having swollen lymph nodes is a very common ailment which most adults can have every once in a while without having anything as serious as cancer. As far as HPV goes, it is a very common STD which most often does NOT have any signs of symptoms. Only very few strains (usually #16 and #18) are what may have the potential to ever go on to turn into anything serious. Even a few decades after lying dormant for years can someone clear the HPV from their system frequently never knowing they even had it. Theres over 200 strains of HPV for oral cancer (OC) either #16 or #18 might turn into cancer but the odds are very slim!!! If I remember correctly out of those 2 HPV strains, only around 5% of patients will have their HPV turn into cancer. As mentioned before... patients can have HPV for many years, even decades without it ever causing any ill effects. You can click on any HPV you see within any posts to read more in depth info about HPV.

Im sorry we are not able to help you more. Best wishes!