Hi, Jon,

My husband's cancer was in the tonsillar, base of tongue, pterygoid muscle area.It was pretty close to his vocal cords as well. All of these areas have squamous cells. He was stage 1Vb (based on size of tumor and areas affected) and he had 1 positive lypmph node and the possibility of a second. It sounded so serious but try to visualize it this way- the areas I have mentioned have similar types of tissue and the cancer doesn't say - oh, no- I'm on the edge of the tonsil so I can't go any further and need to stop (sorry but that is one way to think about how types of cancer that thrive in squamous cells don't "respect" the boundaries that we use to describe adjacent parts of our body). The more serious aspect to the spread of his tumor beyond the tonsil was that you couldn't simply take out the tonsil- so surgery would be very destructive to function. On the other hand, the chemo/radiation combo was directed to the entire area and he ended up not even needing surgery to remove lymph nodes. He did have induction chemo (as did SandySt and BobWhyte just to name two others) due to the size of the tumor and the belief that he might have a better outcome.

Back to your question above- lymph node pain and swelling is often one of the first major symptom that people with BOT and tonsil area cancer experience. Now that you are aware of symptoms, they will seem to get worse pretty quickly and waiting for treatment to begin is very scary. I thought my husband's wait was excruciating and worried about how it would affect his outcome. But I agree with what everyone has been telling you. Your cancer has been growing for some time and you now need to take the time to develop and find the best treatment plan and team that you can. You do have time to do this.

Take care- Sophie