You mentioned that you have been ill for six weeks but the white tongue showed up about a month ago. If you have been taking antibiotics, there is a strong possibility that it caused you to develop oral thrush which is another name for the fungal infection that Brian mentioned.

Thrush can be very painful. But, an anti-fungal medication should clear it up quickly. My ex-husband had a bad case of thrush after stopping and starting antibiotics to address a lymph node in his neck. Ultimately, the lymph node was related to a benign condition.

What worries me more is that you are a smoker who is having a biopsy because you are afraid you have oral cancer...but, you are still smoking. If your biopsy shows that you are cancer free, please use this experience as a wake-up call. Just reading Christine's own account of what tobacco did to her should make you swear off cigarettes for good.

This is what cigarettes do for you:

They make your clothes and your breath stink.
They make your teeth yellow.
They cost you lots of money that you could spend doing something fun or buying something you want or need.
They make your home and car and any other place where you regularly smoke look dingy and dirty and smell like an ashtray.
They cause your arteries to harden more quickly because they cause your cardiovascular system to lay down plaque at a quicker pace.
They cause heart disease, lung disease, and oral cancer...just to name a few potentially fatal diseases.

Cigarettes do not make you look cool, or sexy, or sophisticated. They make you look foolish, unhealthy, and uninformed.

I have lost several family members to tobacco related diseases. Two of my sisters are widows because of cigarettes. My nieces and nephews are fatherless. One of my brothers-in-law died of heart disease, the other died of lung cancer.

Please, please...stop smoking.