Hi all. My name is Eric. I'm a 38 year old, ex smoker, married with three beautiful kids ranging from 3 years old to 9 years old. I smoked about 1-1/2 packs a day from age 15 until about 6 months ago. I still chew the Nicotine gum though. Also until recently I drank about 3 beers a day in the evening before we eat. Sometimes a few more on occasion. I first noticed symptoms with my tongue about a year ago. It was limited to tingling maybe a slight burning from time to time. My dentist prescribed Nystatin (sp?) It seemed to get pretty much better but then came back. I mentioned to my Family Doctor and he prescribed more which didn't help and then the Diflucan about 2 months later which seemed to help but didn't get rid of it altogether. Still the tongue burning mostly on the sides and sometimes like a tingling. About 5 weeks ago I came down with the Flu. It was a bad one. Fever, in bed for a few days. My mouth symptoms got really bad for some reason which prompted me to get out a flash light and have a look around my mouth. I found one enlarged tonsil and many ulcers. I went back to my Doctor who looked at my tongue and tonsil and said the tongue is normal because I have the bumps on both sides. He didn't look very close because it only took him a second. They don't look right to me. The one side almost looks like a cluster of bumps. He gave me a prescription for 500 mg Amoxicillin and said if the tonsil isn't better in 10 days to call him. I'm on day 7 and no change. I already have a call in to the Doctor and I'm going to request an ENT referral. I'm really scared. I've been reading here for the past week and I must say, If I do have the big "C" , I pray to God I can fight as valiantly as so many of you have. I read your signatures and see what you've been through as well as the stories and support you give to others and I'm very inspired. Please say a little prayer for me and if any of you have any words of wisdom, please fire away. Thank you and god bless.

Get to an ENT guy ASAP (which you are doing) do not wait - and get a biopsy. No more antibiotics. Insist on a biopsy. Particularly of the tonsil - but if they can take a piece of one of the bad ulcers that would be good to. (he said your tongue was normal because it was on both sides? seriously?)
If your biopsy comes back positive for cancer then make sure you get a referral to a cancer center (hopefully you have one locally) Someone here has a list of the top CCCs and will probably post it for you. A local hospital can probably perform the surgery required but depending on the type of cancer and location of the primary the treatment may be chemo and radiation. Its best to go to a cancer hospital that deals with your type of cancer.

After a positive biopsy - the next step is a CT scan, MRI, and or PET scan depending on your doctor. This is to see if it has spread.

However this is all an IF - try to relax until you get the results of the biopsy. I know it's terrifying to face this but this is a great place to be if you hear the bad news. A lot of people here have amazing advice, and support to offer.

Best of luck to you. and take care.

Welcome to OCF, Eric. Im from PA too, near Allentown. There are several of us from the eastern PA/ western Jersey area.

Since you have had problems with sores inside your mouth for longer than 2 weeks, its time to call an ENT or oral surgeon. Only thru a biopsy will you get an answer to what is going on inside your mouth. The medications the dentist gave you are for thrush. Thrush can be very painful, its usually a white coating on the tongue.

Congrats on being smoke free! Im a former smoker too. I threw the cigs right out the window while I was driving to one of my appointments. I hope you stay tobacco free!

It could take the Meds a few days to work so the best thing to do is follow the advice you have been given by Christine andCheryl. Good luck to you and I pray everything turns out in your favor.

Thank you very much for the reply. Yes and they do look similar on both sides which is kinda weird. I have the bumps all the time and my wife has the same ones but mine look different, like irritated. What scares me is I've found through researching on the net that Thrush can be an early warning sign of Cancer and they've treated me for that on and off for a while. I never had serious symptoms of it, just like I said about the tingling and discomfort. I called my Doctor today and they told me that they really think it's an infection that has my tonsil swollen and they gave me a Z-pack to take in addition to my Amoxycillin and call him in 8 days. It does appear to have gone down in size but it's still inflamed. When I was in to see him last Tuesday I told him how worried I was and he just kinda tried to put me at ease. I'll feel a lot better when the ENT looks at it.

Thank you very much everyone. I'm not going to let this drag out. It seems like Doctors will do that because they think the odds are against people having it. I'm sure they have a lot of people coming in scared which ends up being nothing and that makes it worse for the serious cases getting drug out too. Christine I'm originally from Allentown. In fact my Mom still lives there. I make it down a few times a year.