Sarah, please do yourself a big favor and try your very best to stay calm and not get too far ahead of yourself. I know how scary it is to think you may have a serious illness. Facing your own mortality can be terrifying and I feel so bad you are going thru this right now. Just remember, everyone is always most afraid of the things they arent familiar with. Dr Google is NOT your friend for looking up oral cancer info! I admit I often google things myself but I avoid googling health related issues as I know theres far too many sites out there with bad and outdated medical info that could actually do more harm than good and hurt someone. OCF is the go-to website for anything/everything to do with OC. Im hoping your Dr Goole has just lead you down the wrong path and you got too far ahead of yourself. Hopefully all you have going on is an abscessed tooth which could cause intense pain if left untreated. Mouth pain can be horrendous!!! An infected tooth or gum area can also become a serious medical problem if not taken care of. As you have already found out, unfortunately most dentists do not treat or diagnose OC.
Often oral cancer (OC) patients do not have many symptoms. Who would ever think a slight cough, hoarseness or ear ache could be a sign of oral cancer? Many OC patients will also report they do not have any pain. Patients who have their tumor in the base of their tongue or tonsil area may not always have a tumor thats visible. Only thru a biopsy which is then reviewed by a pathologist can anyone determine if a tumor is cancerous. Its very possible for OC patients to go several months, sometimes seeing a few different doctors before receiving a diagnosis. There are many, many things people can have besides OC in their mouths, throats, etc. Most people will have different things from time to time come and go in their mouth without it ever being cancer or changing into cancer. The golden rule around here is 2 fold....
"Its NOT cancer until the biopsy says it is" and
"any time someone has a sore, spot, bump, etc in their mouths for longer than 2 -3 weeks needs to be checked by a professional". By "professional" I mean an ENT who specializes in treating OC patients. An experienced ENT should be most familiar with not only OC but also other common mouth/throat issues that could be what you have going on.
Seeing a family doctor will not help you to get a diagnosis as many family doctors are not that familiar with oral cancer and they normally wouldnt even do a biopsy. Family docs treat things like bronchitis, flu, and other mainstream illnesses. Of course if you are going for a referral, thats then a necessary step. You may want to call your insurance company and check if its necessary.
For suspecting cancer, you definitely need to go to a specialist... the
right specialist! Skipping the ENT and diagnosis to go directly to a surgeon before knowing what you have going on wouldnt be the best place to start either. You do NOT want something removed before you even know what it is... that would be a major mistake! A biopsy is what will tell you whats going on and then take it step by step to take care of fixing the situation. I really hope you have anything serious! But... having a chance of having a serious illness like cancer is enough that you do not want to waste time by seeing doctors who arent able to help you to get a diagnosis. Over the years, Ive seen this happen where patients are in a huge rush and will jump at the chance for a surgeon to remove something so its gone quickly. Instead of going step by step seeing the correct professional for a diagnosis then to get a treatment plan with oncologists they have something removed only to end up needing more surgery anyway due to the surgeon not getting clean margins.
Its doubtful anyone here has had a cancerous tumor for 5 or more years. Cancer thats untreated will grow out of control and turn into a terminal illness. Anyone who let cancer go for over 5 years probably wouldnt be around anymore or in a rare circumstance they would be very, very ill by now. Everyone is different and will have their own unique experiences including how quickly their cancer grew. This is true also for symptoms, reactions to medicines or procedures and healing. What one person complains of, another person may find its no big deal. These reasons are why its not possible to compare patients, symptoms, etc. Every single person is an individual and no two are every exactly alike. Take 10 patients who all appear to be the same on paper. These 10 people are all the same age, sex, height, weight, their tumors are all in the exact same location, same type of cancer, stage, length of time they've had symptoms, even their symptoms are the same. Plus they have the same blood types, live in the same neighborhood, same marital status and family size, same type of career, and even the same treatment plans. But every single one of those 10 people are still their own unique individual which means they will experience every single thing in their own unique way. Even adding in the exact same family histories will still make any comparison impossible. Try your best to not get too far ahead of yourself and avoid comparing your situation to others. Its not only unproductive, it doesnt work!
Staying busy will help to pass the time before you can find out what you have going on and how to fix it. The extra stress is NOT helpful to you or anyone else. So much stress only makes all of this so much harder than it needs to be. I learned a long time ago to control my
"what if" thinking once I realized there was not one darn thing I could do to change my situation and how nothing was helped or improved by worrying. All that worrying and the
"what if" thinking did for me was to make me more upset, unable to eat, sleep and it made me feel just overall horrible.
"What if" thinking really can be controlled and please for your own good at least give it a couple things for me. Every time you start the
"what if's..." give yourself a time limit (2-5 minutes) to ponder everything and then physically get up and
"change the channel". What I mean by that is to get up and go do something positive that not only holds your attention but makes you think of other things instead of
"what if". It really will help, Ive done this successfully many times as have others Ive shared it with. Its so difficult to pull your focus off the
"what if's..." thats why its important to physically get up and go do something else try moving to another room. I used to clean out my closets and from there went to dressers then my kitchen pantry, kids dressers, etc. By the time I mastered my
"what if" thinking, my house was spotless and I felt good having accomplished something I had been putting off for a long time.
Some of the things you read about here can be very frightening. Some members have been thru some gigantic hurdles and survived against highly impossible odds. We try to help each other to get thru some of the darkest days of our lives. Im really hoping you do not have cancer or anything serious going on! But, if it would turn out to be cancer then you are already in the very best place you could be for info and support. Maybe reading about oral cancer and learning more correct info about it will help you to feel more in control of your situation? The main OCF site has page after page that goes into great detail with up to date, correct medical info about anything and everything relating to oral cancer.
Hang in there, you will find out whats going on hopefully soon. Please let us know how you make out. Best wishes!!!
Main OCF site... Understanding section
