Welcome to OCF! Im so sorry you are going thru a scare right now!!! Hopefully this is only a scare and will not turn ot to be anything serious.

Even an experienced doctor can NOT determine exactly what something is unless they do a biopsy and send the sample to a lab for the technician to examine and test. Then the doc receives a pathology report explaining exactly what it is. Ive looked at many photos that to me looked almost identical where one spot looked ok but really was oral cancer (IOC) and then on other pictures they looked really serious but nope they werent cancer. So you just never ever can tell and going by a doctors reaction of a visual exam, take it with a grain of salt. They are NOT certain, but they can give you a guess but its not accurate. Most patients with this sort of cancer can have many biopsies come back with negative results. Ive had many more negatives than positives.

As far as the bills and working goes... I had to learn a long time ago bills to pay are something almost every single person has and sadly many live paycheck to paycheck... me too! No matter what best laid plans are made they dont always play out. I had set myself up to retire with a pension, 401K and SS but ended up never happening due to getting sick and not being able to do my job anymore. Things happen, people get sick and the darn bills pile up but to me there are far worse problems people can have... I can still walk and talk and most days feel pretty good so Im happy and OK. Other days I feel so bad I cant even dial a phone or get off the couch. Even if I had more of those bad days Id still look at it as Im ok as things could always get worse. If you would end up to have cancer dont worry we have a list of financial help places patients can go to and ask for help. Not all places on the list cater to everyone some are geographic others are by age or other criteria. Plus many treatment centers offer programs for patients who need some financial help. Some of these things are kept hush-hush unless the patient asks. Some programs have a bunch of hoops to jump thru before they give help but its worth it if it gets approved.

Waiting is hard!!!!! Try yor best to not let it get to you. Stay busy and engaged with your children. Take it day by day, stay busy with positive things that keep your focus and your mind engaged to help make the time pass easier. Being busy with tasks that require you to pay attention is what worked for me. I never in a million years thought my doc was right and his suspicion was that I had cancer... but I did. I survived by the help from many of the great people here and listening to their advice. I also would tell myself to stop borrowing troubles from tomorrow. At that moment I had not yet been diagnosed so as far as I knew I did NOT have cancer and I went about my regular routines as much as I could. Its NOT cancer until the biopsy says its cancer! Worrying about "what if" has never helped anyone, not ever!!! All it does is stress people out and when people get upset and worried often they can become paralyzed by fear. Stress is NOIT helpful to anyone, its actually harmfuyl to patients and makes every single thing more difficult. Being a single mom is tough!!! If you can do that I have a feeling you are tougher than you think

Happy Birthday!!!