Ryan, welcome to OCF. I would suggest you do your best to remain calm. Getting upset is not at all helpful.

Find an ENT who deals with alot of oral cancer patients. Get a good exam. A swollen lymph node could be from an infection. HPV is something that is a very common disease. For most people it will clear on its own but others it will stick around. That does not mean it will cause you ill health effects. Only a very small percentage of those diagnosed with HPV+ will ever also be diagnosed with oral cancer.

One important tool many young people have available to help prevent ever being diagnosed with the strains of HPV which cause most cancers is to get vaccinated. There are vaccines available for both boys and girls who are under the age of 26. Please get yourself checked out and if you are not HPV+, get the series of shots. It might just save your life one day. It could protect you from having to deal with several HPV+ illnesses.

Hope your throat turns out to be nothing serious. Best wishes!

Best wishes!