Enlarged Chest Lymph Nodes

[Bruno]

Hi,
During the last 3 months there is a couple of days per week when I have massive joints and muscle pain and high fever. I have been able to control that with paracetamol. Had a GI appointment one month ago and did some blood tests. The results came saying that my inflammation markers were high and that my blood count was going down.

The GI ordered a CT scan to see if there was nothing else going on before giving me steroids to control the inflammation.

I did the CT scan and in the beginning of this week my GI told me the scan had revealed that the lymph nodes on my chest had enlarged since my last scan.

I am now going to do a endoscopic ultrasonography to biopsy one of those lymph nodes as the GI wants to see if it's lymphoma!

I am currently not taking any Crohn's medication. Took Aza during 4 months last year but it was damaging my liver, so the stopped me on it.

Needless to say, I am terrified of having lymphoma. I'm only 33
Since Crohn can cause so many symptons, does anyone knows if enlarged chest lymph nodes can be one of them? I am so, so scared

Thanks in advance,
Bruno

 

[Farmwife]

Hi Bruno, Of course that would be frightening.
I'm sorry I don't have the answer but I'm going to tag in people that may...
DustyKat , Jennifer, Lisa , mlp , nogutsnoglory

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I know lymph nodes can be enlarged with an active infection in the body. With crohns an abscess, fistula or skin infection can arise. I'm not sure if general flaring would cause enlarged lymph nodes. It's an autoimmune disease but not sure the body responds in that way for IBD symptoms.

 

[DustyKat]

Thanks for the tag Fw.

Crohn’s disease can cause extra intestinal manifestations in the lung and surrounding structures. It is not unusual for people to have chest X-Rays and have nodules/granuloma tissue from inflammation present on imaging. It is also not unheard of to have enlarged lymph nodes elsewhere in the body when intestinal inflammation in present, including the chest, particularly when infection is present. And as you can imagine, breaching the bowel wall with inflammation will inevitably set up some sort of infective process as non sterile matter (faeces) is entering a sterile environment.

Good luck with the biopsies! I hope all turns out to be benign and no cause for alarm.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Bruno]

Thank you everyone.
I did some reading and it seems that enlarged lymph nodes can appear when Crohn's is active.
Quite terrified nonethless. Was never expecting this. Will have the biopsy on March 10 and then wait a week for the results. It will be a few very anxious and worrying weeks.

Thanks for all the support.

 

[JenS]

Bruno, I was going to tell you that my lymph nodes have been swollen for months too. They thought lymphoma or breast cancer, but it was allergies!!! I know it is hard not too worry but let's just have faith!

 

[JenS]

Thanks for the tag Fw.

Crohn’s disease can cause extra intestinal manifestations in the lung and surrounding structures. It is not unusual for people to have chest X-Rays and have nodules/granuloma tissue from inflammation present on imaging. It is also not unheard of to have enlarged lymph nodes elsewhere in the body when intestinal inflammation in present, including the chest, particularly when infection is present. And as you can imagine, breaching the bowel wall with inflammation will inevitably set up some sort of infective process as non sterile matter (faeces) is entering a sterile environment.

Good luck with the biopsies! I hope all turns out to be benign and no cause for alarm.

Dusty. xxx

My last CT-scan showed some inflammation in my lungs but my gut was fine, funny! Crohn's is weird.

 

[Bruno]

Hi JenS, thanks for your reply.

Allergies? Wow! I'm glad it was nothing more serious.
Besides the Crohn's flare I am also having a Psoriasis flare up, and I read this on the National Psoriasis Foundation website:
"It is not uncommon for a person who is experiencing a flare-up of psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis to experience an elevated white blood cell count and/or swollen lymph nodes. This does not mean that there is an infection present, however, the immune system has been triggered just as if there were an infection present and is responding in the normal way. The elevation of white blood cells and swollen lymph glands will usually reside once the flare-up is under control".

Trying to remain remain positive and not to worry but it's quite hard. The fact that I'm not feeling very well with two flare ups at the same time doesn't helps either.

 

[Jennifer]

Lymph nodes nearby inflamed intestines can become enlarged themselves and isn't uncommon with active Crohn's Disease. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16243717 As for in the chest, it hasn't been mentioned a lot on the forum. It has been mentioned while member's immune systems were low however such as from certain medications plus our immune systems can be lowered greatly from our bodies fighting off active disease.

I've had enlarged lymph nodes in my arm pits and in both breasts while on Remicade. Taking antibiotics each time treated the infections and stopping the medication stopped the recurring infections. I've also had enlarged lymph nodes in my armpits while not on medication when I'm really sick from a flu (wonder if you might be dealing with the same thing, maybe active disease instead of the flu though but could be symptoms of an infection as well). None of my doctors wanted to do a biopsy though, they just treated with antibiotics and it would clear up.

Hopefully it's nothing too serious. Keep us posted.