I agree with the advice you've been given so far and I'm glad you are going to the doctor on Monday.

If you haven't do so yet, sit down and make a list of the symptoms that concern you so that you don't forget anything when you see the doctor. Can someone go with you? It helps to have someone else there so that can take notes.

Wishing you the best!

Y&W - you are using the site just fine, keep on doing what you are doing, but listen to (and do) what these people are telling you, and that is 1. quit smoking and 2. lie, cheat, steal (ie do whatever is necessary) but get yourself to an ENT doctor who specializes in oral cancer. Let him/her be the one to tell you what you have or what you need to do next. Stop trying to diagnose your own problem via what you read on the internet. Stop trying to relate your other physical problems to this one. They may or may not be related, but only an experienced doctor can make that decision ... not you, and not anyone on the internet.

Edit: I must have missed somewhere that you have a doctors appointment Monday ... sorry.

Lastly, stop worrying yourself silly over this. A high degree of worry is very common in our new forum members, we see it all the time. One of the first things we have to do for almost every new member is to get them to calm down and stop worrying. When you calm down you will start thinking rationally again and regain the ability to learn about your situation in a healthy, productive way.

If you just absolutely have to cruise the internet for information, go to our OCF website and read the stuff there. All of that stuff has been reviewed by experts before it was ever published here. It has a much higher chance of being legitimate and accurate than the unknown and unproven stuff found on most of the internet.

Hang in there, you will get through this. You will get through it much easier if you calm down and stop worrying so much.

take care,
Tony

Young and worried. Do you plan on being young and worried forever? We'll have to find something shorter and happier to call you. Now the Americans here might not appreciate just how remote you can be from even a basic GP in Australia, so we'll cut them some slack on that. What town are you in/near? Even remote places have procedures for getting you treated.

You need to see a GP first for a referral to a specialist ENT surgeon. The public system generally have a cancer referral centre in one of the major hospitals in your state. BUT... as we've said before this could be a million things besides cancer. The only way to definitively diagnose cancer is to biopsy the tumour or aspirate a swollen node.

Doctors look at a whole range of things when doing a diagnosis. If you Google you will come to the conclusion every tummy ache is bowel cancer an every headache a brain tumour. Telling the difference requires years of training, thats why the doctors get the big bucks.

Let me tell you one thing I learned about smoking related cancers. They are considered to be exposure dependent, so the more you smoke the worse it gets. They measure the exposure in pack years. A pack year is a pack a day for a year. So if you smoke a pack a day for 4 years you have 4 pack years. I smoked less than that over a lot more years, and mine worked out to be 5 pack years. The ENTs said while it is a factor, it was nothing compared to P16, which caused mine. I quit straight away of course, and so must you. Completely and right away. Whatever your diagnosis on Monday, consider this your wake up call. Not everyone survives a second wake up call.

As I said earlier and everyone has said something similar, stop smoking, stop Googling and stop stressing. And wait to see what the doctor says. Let us know how you go.

I appreciate all of your replies -- it has kept my anxiety at bay. However, the doctor said it was just "anxiety" that was troubling me. It isn't just anxiety!! I am offended, and angry, insulted, grr!! Next step is going to an ENT. I am taking the advice that you have all given me and I will continue being persistent until I get an answer!! I really want these things biopsied. I have a question: do I need a referral to make an appointment with an ENT? Thank you all for being so patient with me!!

Stop with the emotions. It won't help anything. Keep everything at an arm's distance.

As far as the referral question, only your insurance company can ask that unless you want to risk having to pay out of your pocket.

Yes you need a referral to see an ENT. Again, calm down it is not helping that you are not thinking clearly about this. You say the doctor said it was just anxiety. You are clearly showing plenty of symptoms of that. Anxiety is not something that is "made up". Its a physical reaction to an external threat. Whether the threat is real or not is what needs to be investigated.

Currently the external threat is cancer. Its in your head as the only thing that could cause this lump in your tongue. Every time you Google you find another description, another statistic, another study that confirms what you're thinking. Sound familiar? Its called confirmation bias and its very normal.

Now separate the anxiety from the lump. What is causing the lump. Is it a fungal thing, is it some kind of benign growth, it must be something. Could be anything. But its there, its obvious and easy for the doctor to see. You will leave the doctor's on Monday with either an answer or the next step in the investigation. But again, don't dismiss him for treating the anxiety. These are two related but separate conditions you have. Let him treat both.

If you do find its cancer, or some other disease that with a long complicated treatment, it will be different to any experience you've had with a doctor before. You might be used to a doctor putting a stethoscope on you and saying "yep, chest infection" giving you antibiotics and it all goes away. Get used to the idea that some medical investigations are very complex, requiring multiple stages. Different specialists, different scans and tests, all to make a proper diagnosis and treatment. All this takes time. Look at the signatures. It takes months, sometimes years. We never have a moment where its the end of the road, there is always another step. Even when you get clear you live with a fear of recurrence for the rest of your life.

Now how do we do it? A day at a time. You break it down to the next step in the path. Your next step is you see your doctor on Monday. There's nothing you can do until then. When you reach that next step you'll have another step. Whatever it is the doctor wont wave a magic wand over you and say "you have cancer and you're going to die". Even if it is cancer, its not the end of the path. You get the next step. Might be a biopsy or a scan. Again not the magic end to the path. Then you have treatment. More scans, blood tests, etc etc etc etc. All steps in a very long path. All we can do is live life as best we can until the next step. Thats how we do it, and thats what you have to do now. Calm down and focus on what you can do between now and Monday. Recognise the anxiety for what it is, and focus on calming it down between now and Monday. And when Monday comes, remember it is just the next step.

Hi -- Just wanted to give you guys an update; I went to my doctor about 2 months ago, he told me that my lymph nodes were swollen in my neck. I visited him again today, my lymph nodes in my neck are still swollen. They're not tender (to be honest, I don't even know where they are)... he seemed slightly concerned. My collar bone is starting to hurt and it's driving me insane! Quite worried now. I'm going to have an ultrasound on my neck next week. Please wish me luck. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks.

I'm really confused why they don't just do a biopsy if they are concerned. 2 months is a long time to worry without doing anything analytical or diagnostic, in my opinion.

Yup - I agree. They're pissing around. A biopsy is in order skip everything else all an ultrasound will do is tell them you have swollen nodes. hugs

Ditto.