The symptoms I have had that started with a feeling of a sore throat and something in my throat are still there. The sore throat would come and go before and know it is there everyday and is more like a pain than a sore throat feeling. Also, I feel something in the back left side of my mouth, not so much in my throat, but around were my uvula hangs down. I think it is my left tonsil.
I have been going back to my local ENT for a monthly follow up and he does scope me and says he does not see anything abnormal. When I had a barium swallow done after my initial ct scan it stated that my tonsils were slightly enlarged.

The ENT stated that the only other test he would suggest is a ct/pet scan. But, he does not think my insurace would cover it.

If this was a cancer would there be other symptoms or some type of change by know? I have had this going on for six months know. Also, is it possible for there to be pain without the ENT being able to see a growth?

Dino,

You need to see a mental health specialist. You are not being treated for the correct illness. I don't even know what to tell you so I don't get abused here. You are nuts, is that good?

Glenn

Hi Dino, I've ended up lurking around here for the same reasons as you... health anxiety/hypochondria. I know it's hard, but i recommend you at least consider the fact that there may be nothing PHYSICALLY wrong with you. Hypochondria is a very complex and difficult mental disorder, and sadly it is very under researched and there are few if any curative treatments for it. Some have had success with anti-depressants like Zoloft because it is theorized that health anxiety is a form of OCD and those drugs help OCD sufferers. Personally, Zoloft did nothing for me, but you should at least consider trying it for 3 months to see if it helps. Cognitive therapy has also worked for some, so you may consider contacting a psychologist. I know it's difficult, because you feel you have a PHYSICAL problem and going to a doctor for a MENTAL problem is like ignoring what you feel is really happening to your body... but you have to at least consider it as a rational human.

Also, the people of this forum have helped you all they can, obviously they have problems of their own. With all that you have asked and all the tests you have had done, no one here can tell you much more, and you know that. Resist the temptation. May I recommend this forum , a place much like this, but for health anxiety sufferers. You will notice a lot of people with the exact same problems you are facing. It's not a cure, but it helps to talk to others that feel the same way. Plus it's reassuring. May I also recommend the book "Phantom Illness" for more insite into health anxiety (why not buy it through the OCF link to support the foundation?). And here is a brilliant artcile from the New Yorker about hypochondria: Sick With Worry .

On a final note, to the sufferers of oral cancer and the founders of the oral cancer foundation... with increased awareness will invariably come increased fear, especially for those with an inclination towards health anxiety. So the push for early detection can be a double edged sword, and you must be prepared to deal with the hypochondriacs, but with a similar tact that you might a fellow cancer patient. Although certainly not life threatening, hypochondria is dibilitating and a serious illness, and much like oral cancer, it is somewhat ignored in the medical world when compared to other diseases (depression, OCD, etc.). Hopefully some of you will find interest in the above posted articles/books/forums. My hope is that this post will help everyone on the forum, those who are lurking because of their health anxiety, and those who actually suffer from cancer and are having to deal with those who don't actually have the disease but feel they do.

Thanks and good luck to all of you.

Frederick

Frederick, you sound like a kind and caring person. I hope Dino [and others] will find some help from your post. Amy

Long overdue to move on Dino!!!! The only way to know for sure would be a biospy. Biospy What!!!
Take the above posters advice and get some professional help.

Danny Boy

Frederick, Thank you for your thoughts on this subject. I think your last paragraph offers insight to a problem more than a few of us hadn't noticed. We have had several posters here that have a need for help that we for the most part are not well equipped to deal with. Several of these posters are persistant and it is hard to be sure if they really are having a problem or instead simply like the attention. Many have heard of hypochondria but I would guess few have really seen it up close.

If you are able to direct these folks to additional help, please do so. Generally, you may post other web sites here as long as they are not trying to sell products. If you have information that might be controversial, please contact me directly first.

Thanks

P.S. I found the article very interesting.

Mark, I noticed that there were a number of people participating in this forum (like me honestly) who do not have the disease, but were extremely worried about the possibility... which is why i decided to post my response. Rest assured that the majority of the people suffering from this sort of health anxiety (which is exasperated by the wealth and ease of information available on the internet now, also called "symptom surfing" - which is exactly what we are doing here) are not acting out of a need for attention (i believe those who suffer that disorder are known as "malingers") but from a geniune, if irrational, fear.

I liken it to a variant of the "boy who cried wolf" fable, in which the boy is not crying wolf maliciously, but because the boy truly believes he has noticed the wolf's footprints and can hear the wolf's breath, and thus is crying wolf out of a natural survival instinct. Unfortunately, once the townspeople explore the permimeter of the forest and tell the boy that there is no wolf, the boy can't believe it because he knows he saw the footprints and heard the breathing of the wolf. Or did he? And the fear is that one day the wolf will really come, but because he has cried wolf so many times before, his calls will be ignored.

An interesting thing is that even people WITH phsyical illness (a cancer in remission for example) can suffer from hypochondria, and although certainly less irrational than a person with no prior illness, the disorder can be just a debilitating. It is evident in a number of posts here from cancer survivors who have found that they have a constant fear of reccurance, even in the midst of negative tests and scans. So hopefully those links can help not only those who are hypochondriacs without cancer, but for those of you with cancers in remission but who are suffering from the constant and excessive fear of reccurance.

Anyways, best of luck once again to all of you. Life is crazy, but it's good to share the any insight gained from each individuals personal experience with the crazy thing. This was my contribution.

Frederick,

First of all, Dino has 24 posts and he has been actively posting for several months, you cannot compare yourself to him. Secondly, I take exception to your statement that there are a "number of people" on the forum that do not have the disease. This may be true, but many of them are family members, friends and caregivers to people that do have the disease. Honestly, many of us have tried to help these people through their problems. We have done this knowing they do not have cancer. It does not work! The only thing this accomplishes is to enable them, they come back, come back and come back until one of us snaps. Your post, as informative as it is, is not a real help to the membership. This is one of the most psychologically and physically devastating forms of cancer. It's ravages and treatment scars are right out there for the world to see. You may not see the 20" scar on a lung cancer patients back, but you will see that an oral cancer patient lost part of his/her jaw! So do me a favor, get together with Dino and start a mental health site. I'll be the first to donate if you guys just go away.

Glenn

Understood Glenn. This will be my last post. Sorry to bother you folks, hopefully Dino and the others like him will understand and respect your wishes and leave this site to those who have the disease. Perhaps it would be best for one of the admins to close this thread.

Thank you for your realistic perspective,

Frederick

Thankyou for your insight Frederick.

I hadn't thought about hypochondria as a mental disorder before. I hope Dino will seek help as you suggest.

Best wishes from Helen

Well....this was an intresting response.

But still...no one has answered any of my actual questions.

You are all too caught up in your own frustrations and i realize you need to vent sometimes and you consider me an easy target because my questions annoy you.

As far as me seeing a mental health person, I do not know how you can make that judgment call just from my posts. I guess you must consider yourselfs professionals in this field. But in reality, your vulgarity and insults are just down right not needed. We all sympathize with your situations, but we all have are own as well.

But, I have been seeing a mental health professional for several months and have already determined that i am very much a sane person. I do not suffer from hypocondria.

I am simply asking some questions and would like some solid advice from your experience.

If you consider my questions to be annoying to you .... then simply do not respond. It's that easy folks.

I am dealing with some very real fears and concerns at this point and just want some insight.

Again ...so that you can understand...If you do not like my questions, then do not respond. I dont now how much simpler to express this very basic and common point.

Please do yourself a favor and read those sites I posted ASAP. You say you are not a hypochondriac when you are in fact the textbook definition of one. Get past the social stigma, being a hypochondriac or having a mental health disorder is NOT an insult and does NOT mean you are insane.

Oh by the way, here's the text book definition of hypochondria:

"Hypochondria is a condition where the person is so overly obsessed with their health that they begin to believe that they are sick with a serious ailment even after having a medical evaluation that proves otherwise. A person with this condition is typically called a hypochondriac. It's a very real condition that effects all genders and age groups equally. Diagnosis typically takes 6 months to determine and is usually made after the person has been checked completely and given a clean bill of health repeatedly, but yet continues to fear that they are sick."

Sound familiar? I see you've been here since March, that's well over 6 months. Please leave these people alone... like you said, no one here is a professional doctor OR psychologist, so no one can here can help you anymore. So instead of asking them not to respond, follow their basic and common point and do not post.

PS - I know I said it would be my last post, buuuuuuuut Dino's post was too aggrivating... especially the 3rd sentence!

Dino. Get the CT/PET scan. This will give you a finite answer if something is actually going on there or not. It still will not be definitive for cancer, but it could reveal some other underlying disease process. None of us is going to be able to, with any certainty, offer you an answer that will satisfy your questions.

Is it unusual to have pain in your throat for a protracted period of time? Yes. Does that mean that it is cancer? No. It could be a many, many benign things. The doctor is willing to write the Rx for the test and put this to bed. I'd go there even if some of it were out of your own pocket. A bunch of lay people, even with life experiences with a cancer cannot do more than speculate on what is going on with you. These observations, other than to get checked completely by a qualified doctor, will not help you resolve this.

I don't recall how many doctors you've seen about this. Can any particular doctor miss something serious? Yes. Perhaps if you got another doctor's opinion, he would find something this ENT hasn't. Bottom line is this, the posters here have done their best to help, but clearly this unresolved issue needs to be addressed by a real doctor finally identifying why you have pain. The most you can do is continue to get medical opinions from progressively more qualified and specialized doctors until a reason is determined. If after all that, they are still telling you that they can find nothing, you will have to come to the conclusion that this pain, which you really physically feel, is being caused by mechanisms not due to biological pathology.

Speaking from my perspective only, I can tell you that right after treatment I had what I thought was a cardiac event. I was sweating, I couldn't catch my breath, I had a pain in my left shoulder, and I was nauseous. A trip to the ER found that I was not having an MI. This happened on several other occasions. These were actually acute anxiety attacks, and the progression of symptoms from just a nervous stomach to the full-blown event were cascade events precipitated by my own sub conscious fear. To a guy who thought he could tough it out through anything and has been through some serious "choke down the fear and move on" events in my life in combat and in medicine, it was almost emasculating for me to have to admit that my subconscious fears were causing this cascade of escalating REAL physical symptoms. I was actually angry that the tough guy I thought I was, was being substituted for by some guy who down deep was scared. I had become my GRANDMOTHER!!!

It wasn't until I learned, with help, to control my anxiety that all this went away. The reason I relate this to you, is not because I think your having anxiety issues, though you may be... it is to illustrate that a persons sub-conscious mind can manifest physical symptoms that are as real as daylight. If all your doctors and tests conclude that there is not an underlying physical pathology, there is only one answer left. Spend the money and get the tests, and also get a second opinion. If all that yields nothing tangible, then you have to consider that the cause is other than biological pathology. But until you pursue all this on your own, posting here, as much as we would like to help you, is not going to give you answers, as you can surely see by now. As much as the people who have replied to you over the last few months would like to have been of some help, we don't have an answer for you.