Hello jj:

The one thing I learned in getting diagnosed correctly is that "you" have to be really assertive. I accidently found a very small swollen place on the right side under my chin while we were checking out blood pressure machines at work that were placed in the break areas. A co-worker said you can check your pulse also by just putting your fingers under your chin, which I did and then found the area sligtly swollen compared to the other side. It felt soft and I had absolutely no pain. I went to my general practitioner who said it was from my sinuses and was a swollen gland that would go away. After several weeks, I still felt it (it hadn't gotten any bigger), so called my doctor; the nurse told me that I was being paranoid and to stop worrying - it'll go away. Several weeks later, it hadn't, so I decided to go to an ENT on my own. He had a needle biopsy performed on the area - it came back NEGATIVE. During this entire time, I did have a mild sinus infection, and in looking down my throat with a flashlight I could see my tonsils on the right side were just a tad larger than the left side, but they didn't hurt, nor did my throat. Nevertheless, I waited another month or so, and then went to a different ENT. He said my tonsils probably did need to come out because they looked somewhat swollen and probably infected, or I could just wait and see if they got better with antibiotics. I opted to have them removed. Well, underneath was Stage IV squamous cell cancer, which was in one lymph node on the right side, and another on the left. This was November 2007. I had 7 weeks of radiation with one day a week chemo. I had been a pretty heavy smoker for years previous, but quit the day of my surgery. All of my follow-up CAT and PET scans since then have been clear, thank the LORD, and I hope that continues. So, not to scare you, but you will probably feel much, much better if you went for a second opinion or even a PET scan, if they would do it.
julieann