Thanks to everybody for the their posts and good wishes. Just to update, the GP I saw yesterday felt the mass he said that he thought it was a lymph node. He took some blood for testing and gave me a referral to the ENT. He said didn't think the mass had the characteristics of a malignancy; for whatever that's worth. He did say my tonsils looked swollen and cryptic. He seemed to think that maybe my symptoms could be related to them. At any rate, I'm waiting to be seen by the ENT now. I will keep everyone posted on my situation. In the mean time y'all are in my thoughts and prayers.