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Pumpkin-
Briefly (I'll respond more a little later), having a single node removed will do nothing negative to your lymphatic system. Our bodies have hundreds and hundreds of lymph nodes. One or even a handful removed will not affect it.
Ross
Pumpkin-
"Polymorphic Lymphoid Infiltrate" is not a diagnosis, it's a description of what your biopsy looks like to the naked eye (well, through a microscope) of a pathologist. All I can discern from it is that some of the lymphoid cells in your biopsy are of different shapes/sizes (polymorphic), now that may be meaningful, or it may not, it really depends on a lot of things. Since this isn't a diagnosis, I would hound your doctor now to find out if a diagnosis was made. If this is as far as the pathologist went, then he or she didn't go very far at all. Maybe they saw enough to suggest an excisional biopsy, maybe not. Either way, you deserve some clarity and at least an initial diagnosis based on the FNA (and you're right, FNA is not considered definitive for lymphoma- excisional is).
Ross
Thank you, Ross! I have Googled PLI and haven't found anything about it, thank you for your information!! I have an appt in a couple weeks to find out more about it and what my next step should be. Also, thank you for the info on the nodes. I knew someone that had nodes removed and then she got lymphedema in one leg, she must have had several removed for that to happen. Now, I will definitely make the decision to have a node removed for a biopsy!
Pumpkin-
Exactly how did you learn of the PLI? Meaning, you had FNA on an enlarged node, and the results were faxed to you, or told to you over the phone, or ... how did this come about? I ask because PLI is really impractical and unhelpful medical jargon for patients, and it seems odd that a doctor's office would think this was an acceptable thing to tell you as far as results go.
As for the excisional biopsy, it's a bit more involved than FNA, as you might imagine, and I would hope that if your doctors suspect lymphoma following the FNA then they will next order this biopsy. Are you having any symptoms? What brought you to the FNA in the first place?
Ross
My appt to see the ENT is in 2 weeks, they said that they will talk about the FNA results and about taking the node out. The local ENT said that I have 3 enlarged lymph nodes on the left side of my neck and he and the radioligist said that it is possibly lymphoma and he referred me to an ENT specialist and he's the one who did the FNA. I'm not having any symptoms but I've had hot flashes for about 10 years and now they seem to be different so I don't know what to think. I will write back after my appt in 2 weeks.