Hi and welcome i hope you dont have to be here, but we're a friendly group if you do- my tumor was inside my tongue, firm, and grew in size very slowly over 4 years. There was no pain with it initially (the skin on the surface of my tongue was red though and inflamed and towards the end painful but it wasn't an open sore.) It doesn't sound like a plugged salivary gland if there are more than one. I personally would go to an ENT to have it checked out and ask them to biopsy it - some times your age an history make a dr. Say no automatically - because you really don't fit the profile for cancer patients - however, there is a fair percentage of us here that are younger with no precursors for this disease. The best thing to do is get an experienced second opinion. Take care and best of luck