hi all

This site is amazing. Gives so many people support, even those who may just be worrying about a biopsy, like myself.

i had a biopsy of an ulcer on floor of mouth, just under tongue, on Friday. i have a four year old boy and so scared to get bad results.

Maxillofacial surgeon said the ulcer looks non suspicious, which is great, but because ive been feeling collarbone pain, ear lymph discomfort and had a cough been really nervous about it all.

I have terrible health anxiety anyway, and have had poor health with lots of infections recently, maybe related to my thyroid going back under. I am scared stiff.

Now i keep worrying about my tonsils, a totally unrelated area to the ulcer, but two years ago saw a gp to check why one is barely visible and the other big and lumpy. She said totally normal so i never checked further.

The taste bud things at back of my tongue are annoying me as rather raised. And my tingue feels a bit achy, think its related to those things. Asked surgeon why i have been lisping recently and he said proabbly the ulcer and not to worry.

Wish i could just deal with this. Am a nervous wreck. Im always thinking with doctors what if they missed this, and missed that with diagnosis of my health, guess ive just seen too much illness around me. Have a sore armpit lymph which i had the other year for months and doctor just shrugged and said infection! Since xmas nothing but infection and theyve nothing to mention. Aaaah

How to be brave and just deal with life!!

Waiting is the worst, and felt better when I had results, wether postive or nargative. I know how you feel, been there, done that, but it won't change any of the facts, and need to come to grips with yourself, and for your son. You need to have faith in your doctors, be positive that he found it non-suspicious, and wait for the results. Actually, cancer is not an easy process,is uncommon, and has to go through certain processes to get, more like a perfect storm. It's usually more likely its something other than cancer based on percentages. Do you have anyone to talk to, besides your son, that may help? Keep yourself busy, and do you have any hobbies?

Definitely keep busy and when you mind goes to the "what ifs" try to just limit the time you think about it . . . like maybe 2 minutes (or less) then switch to something completely different. Stress itself can affect your health, so it's important to try and get a grip on it. Waiting and worrying about something can really be a crazy-maker. So think about the positives like the maxillofacial surgeon saying it looked non-suspicious. Once you find out for sure what it is (and it may be nothing serious) you will feel a lot better and can start doing something about whatever it is. For now, do something fun with your son, exercise, deep breathing and getting together with friends helps. Hang in there and keep in touch with us here.

Thank you both so much for your replies. it helps a lot, i think im actuallu currently starting to get a grip. Hopefully next week results will be negative.

Tamsin x

good luck to you... i get my results tomorow!!

Good luck with your results...keeping our fingers crossed for you.

i think you posted on another thread that you were clear... if so that's awesome.

Thanks all so much for the hopefull messages, so nervous and nothing back yet. Well done leo, i am so happy for you that your results were negative for cancer, i know how worrying it is waiting. Again all the people on here that have actually had to deal with oral cancer are amazing to come n here and support people xxxxxxxxxx

Good luck tamsin. I too am at start of process so playing the waiting game too. . It's hard not to anticipate isn't it but we must at this stage not cross any bridges till we get there. .

I am old enough to have had a few health scares in my life and have found looking logically at know facts rather than "what if " keeps me a bit less emotional about it while retaining hopefully sensible awareness of options I need to know. We need to be scared enough to seek help but not too scared we get ill over it ... hard to find the balance isn't it.

Fingers crossed.

good luck Laura. thanks for writing. I am 31 with a four year old son and think its beng a parent that worries be the most. I have had to go through a lot of tragic things in my life, who hasnt? And i just cant be taking any more. This morning was a horrible scare, i got a letter about a planned neck ultrasound but because it said on it that is was an ultrasound guided neck biopsy i totally freaked out and thought it meant theyd had the mouth biopsy results and were sending me fr further examination, the hospital assured me its not and its iust the procedure and not results back from mouth biopsy yet. I have seen too much death dying misery in my life i am so scared also i have issues with my parter, father of my child so that doesnt help i feel like he always makes me feel guilty for things all these years of arguments and emotional pain i dont think its surprising my health is never right. If i am negative and dont have any abnormal cells etc i want to do some charitable work this year if i am fit anf healthy i want to help others to get through hardship i want to help others who are in pain, i hope i get to live ut my dreams of being a counsellor, no ine should be alone and in pain, life is too precious to suffer it good luck Laura i am hoping for you that it will be all ok xxxxx

The "ultrasound guided neck biopsy" sounds like the sounds like the Ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration, FNAB, which is a biopsy of a tissue sample taken from a lymph(s), and is highly accurate to identify metastatic cancer, and is considered a further diagnostic examination. I probably had 8 of them. It's a rather quick, painless procedure done mainly by a pathologist, sometimes ENT. The pathologist will look at the sample under the microscope, and can usually tell if it's cancer or not, and send it out for further histological pathology, and confirmation. My pathologist at my hospital told me on the spot it was SCC metastases, and my ENT had to speak with me, which was no surprise to us. Another pathologist at another place said it was "interesting", which I knew what that probably meant, and results were back the next day. Good luck with yours.

Poor you Paul. Sounds like you have really been through the mill. Great to hear you are currently ned and lets hope you will never have to go through this again. Still waiting on the biopsy results. The neck ultrasound i just procedure so my worry was unfounded but very nervous to get mouth biopsy results. Just wrote a post about nicotine lozenges. I used them for two whole years and they brought me out in canker sores all the time which went away thankfully but now im thinking oh my could they be related to what im going through now with this ulcer. I have been run down so perhaps a reason for ulcer but otherwise, i never get ulcers really. Also its an odd location, right in floor of mouth under tongue.