I'm Worried I May Have Hodgkins...

Hey you guys, my name is Chris, I live in Australia, I'm 19 in a few weeks, and I have never been able to gain lots of weight my life, but very recently I lost 12 Kilos without doing anything that would have helped lose weight, like I ate normally and stuff, and I have also been noticing that my breathing is getting heavier and I get pains now and then in my chest, mostly on the left hand side, and I just have no appetite at all, I mean I eat but only because I know I have to.
And two days ago I noticed my throat felt like a hand was squeezing it shut, and when I rubbed it I noticed that my right gland in my neck had swollen, rather a lot, and that it was really sore when I touched it. So I began to think of things that could be the cause and I jokingly thought Hodgkin’s and I decided to look it up and check the symptoms while I was online, and I noticed that most of the symptoms were things I had, and I began to wonder if I actually do have Hodgkin’s. I have a doctors appointment booked early next week for a medical form he needs to fill out, so I'm going to ask him to check me out for it while I'm there, but yeah I'm not sure what to do, I haven't told my family yet cause they always think I over exaggerate everything so I was going to leave it until I found out what is really wrong with me. It has been 2 days since I noticed my glands now, and my right one is still as big if not a little bigger, and the left is getting bigger. And they are both still sore if you touch them even the slightest. If I tilt my head to the left, you can even see my right gland sorta "popping out". What do you guys think??

Hi Christoph

This message may be late...

You must be quite worried. The best thing to do is get it checked. It is quite normal to worry about what people think. My parents had cancer a few years ago and this made me anxious that I might get it too.

I worried that my doctor thought I was becoming a hypochondriac. However, I wasn't going to take any chances. A while ago I noticed a lump under my arm. I've always had fatty lumps on my arms and legs, so the doctor thought it was just this.

However, I thought the lump under my arm was getting bigger. The doc still thought it was nothing but asked me if I wanted to get it checked out since I was obviously worried. I said "yes" because I didn't want to find out months later that I had a a serious problem.

The lump was removed and checked. Guess what? I have Hodgkins Disease.

It doesn't sound like you are a guy who is unduly anxious. You exaggerate, sure... your family may know that, but your doctor doesn't, so talk to him about it. Hodgkins is quite common in young people and I am sure he will take the lumps seriously.

If the lumps are getting bigger, check it out fast.

Joey