i've had ongoing mouth problems for over a month now. i'm conerned about them, and will be seeing a dr. but i wanted to know what everyone else thinks as i will not have insurance for another 2 months.

let me see if i can recall how everything started and then go from there.

first, i think, was that my throat (far back of soft palate, near the uvula and tonsils) was covered in tiny little bumps. they almost look like water blisters, almost like something that would normally be there?

then, about 10 weeks ago, i began to have lots of respiratory problems as i began work at my local newspaper. i am at the front door, so i see many customers and my phone is used by people other than myself. there are respiratory viruses running rampant around here.

about 5 weeks ago i got a chronic sore throat. it comes and goes even multiple times a day. lymph nodes are enlarged and painless, as they have been for more than 5 years (i have been biopsied and nothing was found at the time.)

then i got a horrible breakout of ulcers on my tongue. they ran around the edge from halfway back to the same place on the other side. i also began to be unable to swallow. realized my tongue was swollen and rubbings against the sharp edges of my teeth. i think it was maybe a salivary duct stone as i found a place of pain, massaged, and had an instantly gritty feeling between nearby teeth.

i thought it was resolved, but now i am noticing that my tongue is swollen again in the back, and that my left tonsil is so enlarged that it is deforming my throat? also under my jaw i have an enlarged area that seems to be related to the tonsil. i thought it was a lymph node, and given my history, had not given it much thought.

my fear is cancer of the tonsil. indolent lymohoma was never properly ruled out. i also was on a medication for years that caused me to drink and smoke excessively.

i am 24 years old, female.

i guess what i am asking is if any of this seems overly alarming to anyone with some inside knowledge. Should i be okay to wait until my husband's new job provides BCBS insurance? I don't want to have a pre-existing condition that would keep me from getting coverage when i really need it ... but i don't want to wind up with extensive damage or terminal illness as a result of waiting for another 10 weeks.

i DO have an ENT doc who would see me ASAP if i ever called him. I had an interesting deep-neck abcess a couple of years ago that really interested him and was highly unusual. So, both he and his partner remember me with a bit of affection ... which is always helpful when trying to get into an office that sees 100+ patients a day.

any advice is appreciated. if any of my symptoms strikes someone as a warning sign, please let me know.

as of now, i'm planning to worry but wait until the BCBS kicks in.

Thanks.