Hello all. I'm a 26 year-old father of 2 who feels certain that I have oropharangeal cancer. I've presented symptoms for a little over 4 months now. It started with a funny feeling in the back right side of my tongue, like I had something growing there. In addition to that, I had a slight pain in the eustation tube area on the same side, as well as some pain in my jaw and back of neck/head. I also had some minor periodic hoarseness. I went to my family doc and he said that besides the fact that my papillae were prominent, nothing looked abnormal. I had gone through several periods of this before and it had came and went so I felt okay. He did a strep test and that came up positive so we started AB. I didn't quite feel like the strep had anything to do with this but went ahead and took the AB. Recheck 2 weeks later said the penicillin didn't work. Took Keflex for 10 days. Next strep test was neg. I still had the problems with my tongue. Nodes weren't swollen. I know this is the worst thing to do, but I went to the internet. As soon as I put the symptoms in, oropharangeal cancer came up. I went back to my doctor and told him my fears of this specific malignancy and he told me that he didn't see anything that would indicate that. At this point, I was experiencing some facial "tingling" or numbness on that side. He sent me to an ENT. I have a very deviated sceptum and nasal polyps. He put me on a week of steroids for the polyps, said that the bumps on the back of my tongue were just circumvelli papillae and that my throat looked fine. He said that my tonsil was prominent on that side but looked healthy. He ordered a limited CT of the sinuses and said that looked clear, just that my sceptum was deviated. My symptoms persisted. My throat was hurting slightly on that side now and I was feeling the symptoms more frequently. I do need to note that the symptoms would almost go away for several days, sometimes almost for a week only to return later. He sent me back to get another CT, this time of the full neck and head with soft-tissue contrast. I had this done on Sept 5. I got the results on the 28th. He said that all was clear and at the time my symptoms were subsided so I felt good. I just couldn't believe that I had been feeling what I had been feeling and not had any problem. He seemed to be totally unconcerned with my throat at this point and went back to my nose, saying that even though the polyps were shrunk he still wanted to do the sceptoplasty if I wanted it. He said it was simply a matter of comfort. My symptoms returned a week or so later and I went back to my family doc with my CT slides. He looked them over and said that everything was fine. In my mind, however, I was questioning that due to the fact that this CT was over a month old. I have now decided to go see a Head and Neck specialist who seems to have written alot on the diagnosis and treatment of oropharangeal carcinoma. I go see him on the 19th of Nov and I'm going to be very anxious about this. I am glad to have found this forum if only for the comfort of knowing others who are going through this as well. I will keep you all posted.