How my Cancer Scare and Fibromyalgia are linked

When It Becomes Personal: A Cancer Scare, Stress, and Fibromyalgia

A few months ago, I found a lump just below my ear, at the side of my neck.

If you’ve ever discovered something like that, you’ll know what goes through your mind. You try to stay rational. You tell yourself it’s probably nothing. But the word cancer floats around in the background whether you invite it or not.

Over the following weeks I had scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, and consultant appointments. Waiting rooms. Silence. Google (which I do not recommend).

Thankfully, the diagnosis came back as a benign reactive lymph node.

Relief doesn’t quite cover it.

What was interesting, though, was the explanation. The lymph node was reactive. It enlarged during periods of infection, when I was run down, and during times of physical or mental stress.

That caught my attention.

As someone living with fibromyalgia, I am very aware of how my system responds under load. And after speaking to others and reading experiences shared online, reactive lymph nodes don’t seem uncommon in people with fibromyalgia.

It makes sense.

Fibromyalgia isn’t just about pain. It’s a system under strain. Immune activation, nervous system sensitivity, inflammation, poor sleep, energy dysregulation — they don’t operate in isolation.

Stress and the Fibro Symptom Loop

In the Fibro Symptom Loop model I use in my work, symptoms don’t sit in neat boxes. They trigger and amplify each other. Pain disrupts sleep. Poor sleep increases inflammation. Inflammation increases fatigue. Fatigue lowers resilience. And through it all, stress — physical or psychological — acts as an accelerator.

I’m not saying stress causes fibromyalgia.

But I am saying that stress drives symptom expression.

When the system is overloaded, things flare. When the load reduces, the system stabilises.

This experience was a reminder — personally, not just professionally — that managing nervous system load isn’t a luxury. It’s essential.

Reducing stress isn’t about “thinking positively.” It’s about lowering the cumulative burden on the body. Better sleep. Smarter pacing. Emotional processing. Boundaries. Recovery. Regulation.

When you lower the physical and mental stress load, everything else has room to improve.

And sometimes, even a reactive lymph node settles down.

If anything, this scare reinforced what I teach: don’t chase individual symptoms in isolation. Support the system.

The body isn’t fragile. It’s responsive.

If you are struggling with Fibromyalgia find out how you can live the life you want to live with Fibro Freedom Therapy by clicking here. From online and in-person courses and workshops, to 1to1 in-person and online coaching.