Lump on outside of throat... so worried.

[PlutoJ]

I'm so upset right now :( I just don't know what to think. I have a doctors appointment for the 30th but it seems so far away and I just want to see if anyone has had the same issues.

I have this hard, non movable lump on my throat maybe an inch below my jaw line, it's on the left side. It's attached to the neck and moves when I swallow. I know I shouldn't be reading stuff on the internet but everything points to cancer. Now I don't know if this next thing is just my anxiety or if it's real but I also get tongue pain, but it's so mild I sometime wonder if it's real or all in my head...

I'm 23 years old and I do smoke about 5 smokes a day... I'm so stupid. :(

Please help.

[Tex]

At 23, the likelihood of it being anything smoking related is very small. I once found a mass in my neck and stressed for days until I finally found the same mass on the other side and realized it was a lymph node and it was normal. It's always good to get a doctors opinion. Best of luck!

[TiredGamer]

Could be your hyoid bone if it's hard and feels like a bone. I really, really recommend you stop smoking though. I smoked from about 20 yrs. I switched to the ecigs for 2 years and was able to quit completely eventually.

[Freddiemercury]

Obviously I can't say exactly what it is but it sounds sooo similar to what happened to me last month. Nothing, and I mean nothing, I read led me to believe it was anything but cancer. It was hard as bone and did not move. It was under my chin in the soft area in my throat near my jaw line. I was 1000% convinced it was cancer and that experience set off a chain of events of health anxiety that I still haven't been able to completely shake. Don't let that happen to you! I went to the doc and it was fine and it's actually gone now. Don't diagnose yourself over the Internet.