Thyroid or lymph node?!
Question: Thyroid or lymph node!?
Sick for a week, with no fever!. One day at work left side of neck start's swelling!.!.!. alot!. Swelling later subsides some!. Look's to be the thyroid, even feel's as such!. My Dr!. say's it's about 2-3 cm!. Does not know if this is thyroid or a lymph node!. Mass move's up and down when I swallow!. I have not had blood work yet, but have a CT w/contrast scheduled for tomorrow!. I'm thinking about skipping this and asking for a blood test and ultra sound from a new Dr!. What would you do!? What does this sound like it could be!? I was also told it is just one big nodule!. Not happy with the lack of info and the order of test's I received today!Www@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
Your thyroid gland is in the front center of the neck - the "adam's apple", a butterfly-shaped cartilage that lies across the wind pipe!.
You know a nodule is a node, or lump!. Swelling on either side of the neck just under the jaw would point to one of the glands that travel in that area - the saliva glands (think lemons and pickles) or parotids, etc!. These can have lymph nodes or even stones!. Mumps shows up in this area, also!.
Lymph nodes are scattered all through the body; there is a lymphatic system just as there is a blood circulatory system!. The lymph glands are there to try to intercept any cells that might be trouble makers, and when you have an infection, cells from the infection are trapped by the lymph glands, stored in the nodes, until certain blood cells can gobble them up!. So a noticeable lymph node is an indication it's doing it's job!.
X-ray shows bone, but CT with contrast shows what's going on in soft tissue, to enable the doctor to choose the most effective treatment!.
A blood test would show comparative analysis of the types of cells floating around, to see whether there is a chemical imbalance in the fluids!. For example, if there are many white cells that indicate an infection, you'd have a fever while the body tries to fight the infection!. Ultrasound shows soft tissue too, but more for larger organs like heart movement or sono(sound)gram to see development of a fetus!.
Think about this - the contrast is injected into the blood stream for better visualization of the soft tissues and how they're interacting with each other!. I think he's on the right track!.
I'd give him a chance to look into it - It takes a better doctor to be able to admit he doesn't know everything and say "I don't know, but let's look into it", than the one who insists if it's not perfectly described on page 34 in the 2nd paragraph, there's nothing wrong!.!.!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
You know a nodule is a node, or lump!. Swelling on either side of the neck just under the jaw would point to one of the glands that travel in that area - the saliva glands (think lemons and pickles) or parotids, etc!. These can have lymph nodes or even stones!. Mumps shows up in this area, also!.
Lymph nodes are scattered all through the body; there is a lymphatic system just as there is a blood circulatory system!. The lymph glands are there to try to intercept any cells that might be trouble makers, and when you have an infection, cells from the infection are trapped by the lymph glands, stored in the nodes, until certain blood cells can gobble them up!. So a noticeable lymph node is an indication it's doing it's job!.
X-ray shows bone, but CT with contrast shows what's going on in soft tissue, to enable the doctor to choose the most effective treatment!.
A blood test would show comparative analysis of the types of cells floating around, to see whether there is a chemical imbalance in the fluids!. For example, if there are many white cells that indicate an infection, you'd have a fever while the body tries to fight the infection!. Ultrasound shows soft tissue too, but more for larger organs like heart movement or sono(sound)gram to see development of a fetus!.
Think about this - the contrast is injected into the blood stream for better visualization of the soft tissues and how they're interacting with each other!. I think he's on the right track!.
I'd give him a chance to look into it - It takes a better doctor to be able to admit he doesn't know everything and say "I don't know, but let's look into it", than the one who insists if it's not perfectly described on page 34 in the 2nd paragraph, there's nothing wrong!.!.!.Www@Answer-Health@Com