Mouth cancer?

[andrea15]

Been a while since I was here but about a week ago I noticed a lump in my cheek near my top teeth. Good old Dr Google points at a tumour of the buccal mucosa. It wasn't painful before I started poking and prodding nor did I have ear pain until I read it was a symptom (my nose is a bit stuffy so logic would say I have a bit of a cold and the ear pain is related to that). I have a daughter starting high school on Monday and a son starting college. Every time I get over one of these episodes I am fine for a while then some other cancer-related symptom crops up. I am putting off seeing the doctor as I have to be calm to get the kids off next week and I fear if he recommends tests that I will fall apart. So sick of putting my family through this :(

[hanshan]

Lumps in your mouth don't point at cancer, any more than a headache points at a brain tumour / aneurysm ... etc.

[andrea15]

The logical part of my brain knows that but sadly the Health Anxiety depletes the logic

[andrea15]

Had a GP appointment yesterday and his immediate reaction was 'it looks like a mucosal cyst'. He was not concerned by it's appearance or the ear discomfort and said they were very likely unrelated.

[hanshan]

The problem with Dr Google is that it links very common symptoms with dire illnesses like cancer.

Doctors in practice know that the vast majority of lumps and pains that they encounter are benign and will usually resolve of themselves. The problem for health anxiety sufferers is that their doctor may come to consider that every symptom is anxiety-related in some way.

[andrea15]

You are exactly right yes. I know full well that poking and prodding and over-analyzing etc can actually make symptom arise in my body. And it's ALWAYS the Big C and always terminal in my head.

[Smirk]

The logical part of my brain knows that but sadly the Health Anxiety depletes the logic


OMG THIS , this is what I hate most about anxiety and I'm going through the exact same thing as you. In fact I'm going to make a post about my own oral cancer fears shortly.

I can't agree more that your logical mind tells you how rare it is and how dumb we are for thinking it but it's like our brains are in instinctual survival mode and don't care.

Get well as I know how mentally draining this is.

[andrea15]

Feel free to message me Smirk