Yesterday, my fingers discovered two lumps in my neck, one directly under my chin and one under the corner of my jaw. I’m not prone to lumps in my neck, though my dad was. While showering, he felt a lump in his neck and one thing led to another. He had Hodgkin’s disease while still in his twenties, so I was introduced to the terror of cancer when I was a young girl. The cancer didn’t kill him, then, though. It took another bout with cancer–melanoma–twenty years later to do him in.
At any rate, lumps kind of scare me, even though I know that we all have strings of glands in our necks which swell when we’re fighting off infections. I know this. And I am dragging a little bit, fatigued, clearing my throat a little more than normal. So, even though I can’t stop fingering these symmetrical lumps, I am certain (mostly) that I am in no danger of dying young. (I will die, however, since that is the fate of all human beings. Alas.) I’m just fighting off a little virus which is no surprise since my daughter was sort of sick last week.
But I can’t stop teasing my husband. He wanted me to make popcorn for him and I said, “Yes, I and my lumps will make you popcorn.” And we talked about how I could just be disposed of in the Back Yard Hole. (Please, though, send flowers. Lots of flowers. No donations in my name to any charitable cause, just an excess of flowers.)
Really, the truth is that I and my lumps are going to bed early tonight, partly so we can finish reading To Kill a Mockingbird and partly because we are utterly exhausted from checking our email every ten minutes without fail throughout the whole day.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Mel, I hope that you and your lumps get the rest you need and have a better day tomorrow. I’m not one to panic easily (anymore - Jess has taught me well) but if your lumps don’t go away in a few days - week, please go have them checked out.
My and my lumps (aka: chins) are headed to bed now too… which is early for me. Hopefully I’ll actually get to sleep at a decent hour and have some energy to get something done tomorrow.
Sleep well.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:12 am
I am hoping you got lots of rest and that your lumps are gone in the morning. I get those (swollen glands) almost every time I am unwell. Thinking of you!
Steph
May 8th, 2007 at 5:15 am
I check my mail at least ten times a day…the funny thing is? There’s rarely anything there. sigh. Hope your day is a good one — lumps and all. (btw…To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books of all time).
May 8th, 2007 at 6:06 am
My family (sister) had Hodgkin’s and I got a lump in a neck lymph node (sentinel) and had to even have a biopsy. Up till the results came back as ok, me and my lump asked all kinds of favors. I couldn’t make popcorn cause, see, I have this lump (insert pathetic look) and miraculously my hubby could work a microwave. Sigh. I still have the lump, it just isn’t as effective now.
May 8th, 2007 at 7:18 am
hope your lumps are only swollen glands from being sick, you silly girl! I can only wish that my only lumps were in my neck! sigh
I check my email several times a day too but if I dont I get too far behind on emails to ever catch up and then first thing I know Ive missed something I should have known about and someone is calling to tell me so in unfriendly ways!
May 8th, 2007 at 7:39 am
I hope the lumps go away when you can get some good rest. Keep a close watch on them - I hate lumps.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:00 am
I’m with you, I told my family there better be LOTS of flowers. Hope your lumps feel better soon.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I do hope you feel better soon. It has to be tough to has something as simple as swollen glands be so linked to the terrifying.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Sorry to hear about your lumps. Yikes. Scary. Yucky.
Here’s a poem:
There once lived a mommy with lumps
who felt way down deep in the dumps
She swooned and she fainted
A sad future she painted
Til she woke up with joy and with jumps
May 8th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Begone, lumps! My sister gets swollen glands before she gets sick, so we always have advance warning. I hope they are gone in the morning. I am also a compulsive email checker. Sigh. I am a sad person. These things matter!
May 8th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
It is so tacky, but I keep thinking of that Black Eyed Pea’s song…only change the words to “my lumps…my lumps, my lovely neckish lumps…” I guess I”m in a weird mood. Watch those glands though…it never hurts to be too careful with things like that. Get well!
May 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Hope the lumps go away. Little man gets them in his neck all the time. I’m not sure I will ever accept them as just normal. Poor kid - I’m always feeling around his neck/throat area!
Hope you are feeling well soon though =0
May 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Take good care. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
May 8th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I located a lump under my collarbone several years ago…and again I say, SEVERAL YEARS ago, ha! It was in such a strange place I was sure I was dying. I kept poking and prodding it for a couple of weeks…then life caught up with me and I forgot about it ’til a day a week or so later. Alas, it was gone. End of story.
May 8th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Horrid lumps! Get out of Mel’s neck! After my grandmother died of lymphoma I found a lump in my armpit. I can still recall that cold feeling I got. I also checked it about a zillion times a day. Until the day I went to the doctor, and then it was gone. I tell you, it WAS there! I’m a compulsive e-mail checker also. It’s pathetic. You’d think I hadn’t had contact with the outside world in years.
May 9th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Here’s hoping you have some busy lymph nodes.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Hello Mel,
Learn from me and listen to several other commentors, if the lumps aren’t gone in a week or less PLEASE go see your doctor. Anything goofy is best caught earlier than later.
Get well! (For my sons’ warts we say “I divorce thee” 3 times while pointing at the problem area.)
XOXO Katie
May 9th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
i know that “I and my lumps” msut be correct but, boy, when you hear it said wrong so often the right way just sounds so wrong!!
May 10th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Ooooh, I had lumps last fall and was certain it was cancer and I would not be long on this earth. I tend a little toward the dramatic, ya think? Turns out I had mono.