What Causes Pain And Swelling In The Left Armpit?

Posted on Thu, 5 Oct 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 5 Oct 2017 Answered on

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : Good morning. I am 72 years old, and in pretty good health. My symptoms started with a swelling in my left armpit, and what appeared to be a swelling in the lymph gland of that arm pit. I called my doctor and they suggested I use warm compresses to reduce the swelling. I did that, and in four days the swelling abated. Yesterday I felt I was having an overall body histamine reaction to something. No new foods. No new soaps or creams. In the night, my skin itched predominantly around eyes, ears, back, chest and face. The itching became so intense I thought I was going to scream. I got up and took a Benadryl and slept solidly for four hours afterwards. A small amount of itching today. No spots on my body of any rash. Any ideas?

Answered by Dr. Chobufo Ditah (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Monitor only for now!

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thanks so much for this query.

I am so sorry to hear about these symptoms. These sound transient and might have been in response to an allergen in the environment.

I'd suggest monitoring only at this time to see if it happens again. Should it become recurrent, we will need to inspect the environment and your body products to identify possible triggers and address them.

Please keep me updated with the situation. I wish you well.

Kind regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee