Pain is good - most cancers don't have any pain. Sounds like some kind of nasty abscess. But kudos to the doctors for making absolutely certain. Your high white cell count is a plus also - that usually means infection. And the lymph glands in the area of the infection get involved too.

My stage III tonsil cancer had no pain and the most perfect white cell count you've ever seen - absolutely textbook. And the lymph nodes were not involved.

I would agree - get a referal to a head and neck surgeon or an ENT guy just to be sure. It's pretty specialized of an area for a regular MD - mine misdiagnosed my for 6 months.

Biopsies are no big deal - they anesthetize your throat and take a little snip. You won't feel a thing. Tell them to give you something for pain management (strong preferably) Some anti -anxiety meds wouldn't hurt you a bit either like Zanax. You may not even need a needle biopsy once the ENT Dx's it. Don't freak and let us know what happened.