Hello to everyone here on the board, obviously I'm new here. I joined because I'm pretty scared at the moment and thought maybe if I came here I would feel less so.

Anyway, I don't have a cancer diagnosis. However I was told a few years ago that I had a very high risk to get oral cancer. As I'm a smoker, my teeth often irritate my mouth, and frankly I have horrible oral hygiene due to years of drug use and frankly not caring. I'm clean and sober now though. Though the damage has been done and I don't have the funds to have my oral issues fixed, though a friend did start a fundraiser type thing for me online.

The reason I'm scared is because of what the previous dentist told me and the new developments in my mouth.

[list]
[*]Lately I've been getting a lot of "canker sores" they pop up overnight almost, one day I'll have none, then I wake up and I have about 5.
[*] I have some strange bumps under my tongue but they don't hurt. They are a bright red, right next to each other and small but I don't notice them, I never would have known they were there if I hadn't been pulling faces at myself in the mirror.
[*] I have two bumps on the roof of my mouth, one of which is very slowly getting bigger. They are a whitish color and according to relatives look very much the like smaller oral tumors they've seen online (because it's from relatives I'm not holding too much water with that bucket).
[*]I also have a difficult time swallowing, occasionally it's painful but many times it's as if I didn't swallow completely. I don't know if that makes sense but I can't think of any other way to put it.


I have an appointment to get my mouth looked at on Wednesday.

So hopefully in my stay here I can get some more information and what I may or may not have, and maybe help some people along the way? Please tell me if I'm ever overstepping my boundaries.