vpfrends
14-07-15, 01:46
I posted recently about being paranoid about oral cancer, at first based on almost nothing, just strange sensation under my tongue which has since disappeared. But because of obsessively poking about in my mouth I felt a hard lump on the floor of my mouth, beneath the gums at the centre-right. Obviously this did not help, and I could not leave it alone.
Anyway, today I saw the dentist, who both reassured me and left me in some suspense. He felt it and at first said it was a benign bone growth (mandibular torus? on a google ban so can't check) but since I'd been googling I knew it wasn't that since the lump was moveable. He looked surprised at that and felt it again, and it was almost funny that I could hear his thought process as he felt me - first feeling for something similar on the other side of my mouth, then asking to feel my neck, which my degree in googling of course told me was to check for any swollen nodes.
It is a relief that he said he felt nothing unusual in my neck at all (another thing I can stop poking at then), and nothing in my mouth looked to be sinister. He said the lump was probably an inflammation of a salivary gland, or could have been there my whole life, which is possible as I have had a similar lump since I can remember. He offered to either refer me to hospital for a better look, or for me to leave the damn thing alone and come back in a week's time, which I accepted because hospitals are scarier than dentist's surgeries.
So that's my challenge for the week, and so far I've kept to it. I do feel slightly better, but like so many HA sufferers my brain is so quick to think "Oh god he wants me to come back, there must be something wrong!" even though he said he really didn't think there was. Hopefully I'll know more next week. Sorry for rambling, I just really felt the need to write out my thoughts, because I really am scared about going back. But it's better than the alternative. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has anything similar - my mum even says she has a lump like mine, although hers isn't moveable.
(P.S. my dentist looked like Jimmy Urine, which weirdly put me more at ease.)
Anyway, today I saw the dentist, who both reassured me and left me in some suspense. He felt it and at first said it was a benign bone growth (mandibular torus? on a google ban so can't check) but since I'd been googling I knew it wasn't that since the lump was moveable. He looked surprised at that and felt it again, and it was almost funny that I could hear his thought process as he felt me - first feeling for something similar on the other side of my mouth, then asking to feel my neck, which my degree in googling of course told me was to check for any swollen nodes.
It is a relief that he said he felt nothing unusual in my neck at all (another thing I can stop poking at then), and nothing in my mouth looked to be sinister. He said the lump was probably an inflammation of a salivary gland, or could have been there my whole life, which is possible as I have had a similar lump since I can remember. He offered to either refer me to hospital for a better look, or for me to leave the damn thing alone and come back in a week's time, which I accepted because hospitals are scarier than dentist's surgeries.
So that's my challenge for the week, and so far I've kept to it. I do feel slightly better, but like so many HA sufferers my brain is so quick to think "Oh god he wants me to come back, there must be something wrong!" even though he said he really didn't think there was. Hopefully I'll know more next week. Sorry for rambling, I just really felt the need to write out my thoughts, because I really am scared about going back. But it's better than the alternative. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has anything similar - my mum even says she has a lump like mine, although hers isn't moveable.
(P.S. my dentist looked like Jimmy Urine, which weirdly put me more at ease.)