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Any lymph node issues after taking vaccine as a COVID patient

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About one month after taking the JNJ vaccine (March27th), I noticed some tightness on the side of my neck and in the front left side. After a scan we saw lymph nodes were larger which led to a small biopsy in my neck. No results yet as it was taken on Friday. My feeling is this is a combination of sprycel/CML and the new vaccines creating the nodes to be sensing issues as they want fight something.  Curious if anyone has seen this problem and what was diagnosis. I am in remission but take 70mg of sprycel. 
 

any feedback appreciated

Yianni in the USA 

Hi,

You dont say how long ago you were dx with CML.

I had this same problem a few years into treatment for CML and was on imatinib 400 mg and was probably a similar situation to yours .I was examined by my hematologist who deemed it not suspicious and we did not go for a fine needle biopsy;he said that it would go away but it might take 12-18 months to disappear.It led to stiffness in the neck so did daily stretching exercises of the neck sitting upright in a chair-also I had a good and well qualified  physio who did neck massage and stretching exercises for me.Before you let some one loose on your neck please ensure that they are fully trained.

My condition gradually improved over 12 months and by 18 months had gone.I was told that if there was any additional swelling around the neck to report but otherwise it would be highly unlikely to be an indication of lymphoma etc.Your biopsy result  will hopefully put your mind at rest.

I never did get a full explanation of why my lymph node was swollen but some suggestions were that this might be the interaction between the CML condition and the treatment or that the body was reacting to an infection of some kind .So as long as you are happy with your PCR (below 0.1) and also that your lymphocytes score and your neutrophils are not too out of range that would be another re assurance.If you know your scores you could compute your own NLR (neutrophils /lymphocytes ratio) which ideally should be between 1 and 3 for a healthy person  -if it was highly elevated it would indicate inflammation and an infection perhaps but not necessarily any other secondary cancer.Look it up on Google

You will of course  have checked whether the underarm and groin nodes might be swollen as well?

I am not qualified to comment on the possible effect of the vaccine ( look at the product literature for J and J /side effects) but recently my specialist commented that even those who might have had a mild form of Covid or have been even asymptomatic might have long Covid effects.In his words Covid can do all sorts of things to you.

My situation was long ago so very pre Covid but I trust the above is useful to you.

Regards

John

Thank you very much for the detailed response.  I was diagnosed 5 years ago and have done well. Besides the typical side effects of Dasatinib/Sprycel. Yes I am happy my BCR is down to <0.002 with a 4.7 molecular reduction. Just trying to get to the point where I try getting off of Spycel and to see how it goes. 

I brought it up with my doctor about the vaccine as I never had this issue before. Don’t have results yet but soon. Even he said it could have been the vaccine. These are my suspicions as CML patients tend to listen to their body and side effects.  Not sure I will ever know as the lymph nodes are unusual and can be a positive when spotting infections.  Will try to update. 

Thank you again. I must say I have found many good answers in this forum. It’s the best source of information sometimes. I want to thank everyone for sharing.  
 

thanks 

John