I'm new here and found your site last night during one of my no sleep stress outs. I have done a lot of reading here and it seems like you'all have a great support system for each other. I may be jumping the gun here by posting as I have not been confirmed to have OC,i am in the early stages of seeing my ent. A little history for me,i was a 25 year tobacco chewer up until oct 1 this year. Last winter I was having bad reflux and this spring early summer the same as well as my voice seemed to get hoarse every now and then.Around late sept I had a sore throat or pain around adams apple that came and went for a day or 2 but for some reason I decided to quit cold turkey a can a day habit. Beginning early October I had a feeling of lump in my throat above my adams apple,lots of throat clearing that never seemed to do much and occasionally my voice would crack or get sore if I talked for a while. Also had some little needling pains along left side of adams apple but they lasted only a couple seconds at a time and disappeared.Over the last 2 months,anxiety got the better of me probably from too much googling symptoms so I made a dr. appt. My regular dr took a look in my mouth and said everything looked good and ordered a thyroid test just to check-came back fine. I didn't feel a whole lot of confidence when I left the office as I still had the lump in throat feeling and after a week of worry and sleepless nights I got them to refer me to an ent dr. I saw that dr. this past Friday and he gave me an oral check,my gums are shot from all the tobacco use.After the check I was introduced to the scope up your nose and down my throat while I got to recite a e I o u. When all was over his observations were ;my vocal cords were a little red and I had enlarged left lingual tonsil and 1 slightly swollen neck lymph node. I was given 5 tablets of 10mg prednisone and a 30 day supply of 40mg acid reflux pills and he said he didn't think it was cancer. Its only been 3-4 days and already I know the prednisone isn't going to take the lump feeling away. He did schedule me a follow up appointment for jan.2 to see if anything is improved. Its a long way to jan.2 and with my anxiety level where it is and not getting much sleep in a night its going to be a long wait. Sorry for the long winded post,i'm in uncharted waters here and sailing a one man ship.

Welcome to OCF. This is a true oasis for those involved with oral cancer. Let's hope you are jumping the gun and the scare to get you to quit the chew is the big win.

It is a big step to get the scope and get good news about that for now. If there was something suspicious the discussion would involve scans and biopsies. So far so good.

Often times you get some antibiotic for a couple weeks and if things don't improve you are onto more tests. In your case, it appears the ENT feels it is inflammation of another type so giving you steroid for the symptom.

Of course nobody knows if you have any cancer but what you have reported so far clearly should have you viewing this as non cancerous rather than cancer. With such notable symptoms if it was cancer, the doctors would have expressed concern to you.

Try not to worry and enjoy the holidays. And give thanks for it at least being a huge wake up call to quit all tobacco!!

Don

Thanks donfoo. Yes fear is a powerful motivator,25 year tobacco habit at a can a day,cold turkey and NO withdrawl symptoms. That is how powerful fear is right there.

Welcome to OCF! Im so glad to see you stopped using tobacco! Im a former smoker who quit cold turkey too. Hopefully you will remain tobacco free no matter what the results bring.

What you have described could be something serious or nothing at all. Only thru a thorough exam can a doctor tell. I would still advise you to see another ENT (taking your other ENTs records with you). Unfortunately OC does not always present symptoms until its later stages. If the tumor is located in the base of your tongue it would not be visible even with using a scope. Until your symptoms disappear I suggest you continue to get checked out. Im hoping its nothing serious! But if it would be cancer, you are in the right place. We will help you get thru everything.

Best wishes!

Thank you Christine. I'm hoping for the best and all this just disappears before my next appointment. I wont be going back to tobacco even if this turns out for the best and i'm fine,i do not ever want to deal with this again. Right now anxiety and waiting to see what happens is taking a toll and I don't even know what is up yet.

Try to stay busy to help keep your mind occupied. Waiting is the worst! But by keeping busy it really will help.

Hi Will - welcome to the family. We've all been in your shoes, we know how you feel. Most of us turned out to have oral cancer but we still got through it, and so will you, whatever it turns out to be.

Maintaining a positive attitude and preventing worry from controlling you is your goal right now. You mentioned in your first post that you have sleepless stress-outs, so I expect that worry is really working on you in a negative way. Do I have it, how bad will it be, will I get better, what is the rest of my life going to be like. Do those sound familiar? We've all faced exactly those questions.

Early on in my cancer journey I met a forum member named Bart. He had many recurrences over a lot of years, but still he was able to maintain a positive attitude and to help others and me especially. The short version of his message was - it will be what it will be - nothing you do will change that - worrying about it won't help (and will probably make it worse) - so don't worry. Yes, that's easier said than done, but it's true and deep down inside you know it. If you have cancer, you and we will face it together after diagnosis is made. If you don't have cancer, then you dodged a major bullet and got to meet some interesting people who weren't as lucky as you.

You don't know you have cancer, you may or may not have it. If you do, we will be here taking every step of your journey with you. Others did the same for us, so we now pay it forward for other new members.

January 2 is a long way away when you want and need to know the answer today. Nothing you do is going to speed that answer up. So, use this Christmas season to do something positive for someone else. Find someplace to volunteer some of your time. Spend some quality time with friends or family. Read that good book you've been meaning to start for awhile, but didn't. Most importantly, keep you mind busy in a positive way, giving it little time to wander back to your worries.

If you want to get some specific knowledge on how to prevent worry from controlling you, do a search on the forum for Bart.

We got through this, you will too.

take care,
Tony

Thanks for the kind words Tony. Trying to keep my mind busy but it isn't easy,i've had anxiety for the better part of 15 years now and this has kicked it into overdrive. Trying to keep it out of my mind and if it weren't for having that lump in throat feeling I probably could do it. Funny,today I didn't have that sensation until late in the afternoon and except for being extremely tired I felt pretty good. Needless to say it showed up and here I am again heading for 1 a.m. with sleep not even in my mind. I appreciate the kind words from everyone even though I am still early in finding out whats going on.

Hi Will and welcome to OCF. Firstly take everything you read on the internet (including here) with a grain of salt. Googling symptoms without medical context will just scare yourself silly, as you've probably already discovered. The net is good for helping you understand what the doctors are telling you, but it won't tell you what you really want to know. Is this going to kill me. You don't care about much else when your life is on the line, and that is completely normal. But the net won't have the answer.

When your TV isn't working, you don't go spending money ripping it open straight away. You eliminate the simple things, like its plugged in, the remote has fresh batteries. Thats what the doctor is doing now. Eliminating the simple and likely, before going into the more detailed investigations. Its completely normal and appropriate.

I saw a lot of psychs this year. Psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists. I saw 4 different psychs for 4 different phases. First was to help cope with the waiting for the diagnosis. Second was to cope with treatment, third to help manage the recovery, and the fourth was to help transition me back to work. I've been on a combination of sleeping medications, anti-depressants (I'm off those now) and counselling nearly the whole year. For you, learning some coping strategies to help with the waiting will be helpful.

There will be no magic bullet on Jan 2. If, and its a big if, if you have OC there are many many steps in the investiation and treatment and a lot of waiting. The next test. The next specialist. The next treatment. It seems endless. And all you can do is wait. And then after months of treatment and recovery, I have to wait another 4 years before I've declared cancer free. You should not be living your life waiting for a doctor to tell you its ok. If we did that we'd die waiting. Take some solace you've done everything you need to do and everything you can do before the next appointment, and make a point of enjoying the holidays just that little bit extra this year.

Hi, Will.

Welcome to the group. I'm sorry that you had to find yourself here on one hand, but I'm glad that you found a place with solid, vetted medical information and people who have "been there, done that".

You have received some solid advice here so far, so I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel, however, I know anxiety very well. As do I know depression. I've had both since early childhood. I am not here to dispense medical advice...none of us are here for that reason. I have been on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds for a long time and things were being managed pretty well. But, when I was faced with the crisis of having a diagnosis of OC, my anxiety "went into overdrive". If you aren't getting any rest, that is not good for you and you have to wait a long time for your follow up. My advice would be to share your anxiety flare up and lack of sleep with your personal doctor or psychiatrist (if you have one). You needn't suffer so much.

All that being said, I hope that you "dodged a bullet" and you don't have to be here, except to keep us in mind when you feel like being philanthropic .

I know you will keep us posted and I will be anxiously waiting for good news for you!

Best wishes,
Kerri