Thank you for your responses, I really appreciate it. I have not been able to see the ENT Dr yet and the lump has gone from flat to sort of pointy now.....almost like a small blister on the tip of the lump and the area around the tonsil is more red now. It is visible without use of the flashlight now whereas when I first noticed it all tissue including the lump was the same color. My bloodwork from the inital visit with my MD came back positive for mono but I have been on strong antibiotics for 8 days now so I don't think this lump is related. I have gone in to panic mode again when I had initially stopped worrying so much after the mono diagnosis, but the change in the lump that I have seen today has really worried me. I quit smoking cold turkey on the 13th.....the day of my initial dr visit. I smoked for a few years as a teen and then quit for 8 years.....I started again in late 2008-early 2009 so I've really only been a full time smoker off and on for a total of around 6 years and I am 32 years old so I feel that smoking probably won't have contributed if this did turn out to be cancer. I do believe that HPV would be highly likely though. I had an irregular pap smear after the birth of my second child 10 years ago and underwent cryotherapy after testing positive for cervical HPV and have had normal paps since but I have been with my husband for 14 years and obviously the possibility of transfer orally exists.
I cannot find anything on the web that doesn't indicate cancer when you search for lump on tonsil. The closest thing I could find was a papilloma but that still sounded dangerous. I can't even look at my children who are 11, 10, and 6 without beginning to cry I am so concerned. Are there benign causes or does this sound similar to anyone's symptoms of cancer?
Thank you for your time