Well, when you get additional information from your doctors, I and others will be interested to hear what they have to say. But try to remember that there are no absolutes in any of this, and asking questions that do not consider that point isn't going to help you.

It is a good thing that you are cognizant of your anxiety issues. Having had to deal with some of this myself, I can first hand tell you that those emotions can cause a cascade of physical events, which are quite real, but subside when the anxiety is relieved. I can manifest rashes, tachycardia, chest pains, and much more that mimic a heart MI for instance, if I let my anxiety issues get out of hand. If you do not think there aren't any psychic debris that goes along with helping people with cancer, you are mistaken. I talk to people in end of life oral cancer issues as a matter of routine... I assure you that I see myself in them every week. The clinic I go to that treats this disorder has patients who can actually depress their immune system over several days of panic attacks. When that happens they have herpes simplex outbreaks, and Candida outbreaks (both of which are in their systems and in balanced control already) and develop other real physical manifestations.

This is not the same as saying it is all in your head, but it is saying that your head can control the physical self. If someone on here says, as you have pointed out, that ear pain was the thing that took them to the doctor, and where a diagnosis of something more was determined, what that really means that oral cancers are very insidious. They do not present with easily detectable symptoms until they are will developed most of the time, and that allows them to go unnoticed and undiagnosed. So an ear ache takes you to the doctor who then discovers a lesion on your base of tongue or tonsil. That is not the same thing as saying that the only thing going on was an ear ache, that was the only thing that the patient noticed. You have multiple things going on, many of which could be tied to more simple explanations such as infections, dental/oral issues, etc. Think Occam's Razor.....

(A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony.)


Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.