Convinced I've Got Tonsil Cancer...

[somethingwitty]

I've already made a joking thread about this to try to calm my nerves, but I just can't shake this...

I'm convinced I've got a cancerous growth on my tonsil. My right tonsil is sticking out slightly, when I look at it looks like a pea sized tonsil. On the other side, my left tonsil is all but invisible. Truth be told my right one looks reasonably healthy - not red, no signs of puss of tonsil stones - but its just sticking out slightly. All in all, its been like it for at least 2 months, or at least that was when I noticed it.

In the last few days I think my glands have been up a bit - although my glands never seem to get that large (TOUCHWOOD!) - and my ears have had that feeling you get after swimming too long. Again, pointing to an infection.

It hasn't been all that sore, flaring up every now and again and giving me a bit of a sore throat, and I have no trouble swallowing\talking\breathing\etc. Of course I don't, my right tonsil is seemingly normal sized, just sticking out.

I saw a GP (not my usual GP) about it the other day when I was at the surgery for a completely unrelated blood test I needed for a medical form, who agreed it was a little large. She felt my neck, couldn't feel anything interesting, and guessed it was an infection that wouldn't budge. As a result, I'm on day 6 of a 10 day run of Penicillin V.

But all that is for nout, as I'm convinced that it is a cancerous growth on my right tonsil. A little pea sized tumour. I'm obsessed by it. All I want is to go see my regular GP and get him to tell me in no uncertain terms that it is not cancer, it won't get bigger and kill me, and everything will be fine. In a dumb move, I keep looking up Tonsil Cancer looking for photos so I can compare, I must check my neck for lumps and bumps 50 times a day.... it is consuming my life.

Just... what the hell do I do?

[flobrien]

Hi there!

Oh man I feel for you this is exactly how I get when I find something new or feel a new symptom. All I can say is can you get yourself down to the docs, just tell them EXACTLY how you feel and get them to reassure you it is nothing. What I can add that might help is that if you have had this now for almost 2 months and it isn't getting any bigger and you haven't developed any other symptoms (relative) then I highly, highly doubt that it is anything sinister. I had a similar thing not too long ago that seemed to be flaring up with the weather?

You'll be A-OK! take care
Fi x

[countrygirl]

I have one tonsil much much bigger than the other and it looks like it has a clear nodule on it - I first noticed this about 10 years ago and asked my Dr and she said what am I looking at you have perfectly normal tonsils no ones tonsils are identical.

AS with everything keep and eye on it and by that I mean maybe check it hasn't got hugely bigger maybe once a week or once a month and I bet you will find that it never alters and has looked like this for ever but you just didn't notice.

Tonsil cancer is so rare as to be off the radar!

[somethingwitty]

Thanks for the kind words peoples. Somewhere deep down I know that either my tonsil is just lumpy and has been like this for years but I haven't noticed because I haven't been scanning my body for things wrong until recently, or the GP was right and I have just got a niggling infection.

Plus as Fi said, it has been static for at least 2 months in terms of size. I haven't got any other symptoms, so it must probably be nothing. It mainly flares up when I get no sleep and smoke, which again screams infection. But due to HA I just can't accept that. Weirdly, I think I'd prefer it if it WAS all red, painful and obviously infected, then I could accept it for what it was rather than spend most waking hours petrified of what it could be!

I finish my antibiotics on Thursday, have a CBT thing on Friday and if it hasn't gone down\if I haven't calmed down by Monday, I'll book in to see my regular GP at some point. That way I can pour out my crazy to him and get him to tell me to stop worrying, or see what CBT program I can get onto and as I'm on a bit of a time scale (I'm moving to America in 10 weeks) and discuss if medication may make things more effective. I've avoided medication so far, but right now...

It's bizarre, all I want is to go see my GP and get him to tell me that medically speaking everything is fine because I've lost the ability to make that judgement myself, but I'm too self conscious and ashamed at the fact that this would be the 7th time I've been to the surgery already this year (9th if you include blood tests\vaccinations for my emmigration stuff) to do so! I don't want to be 'that guy' who runs to the doctor for every niggle, but without doing it I'm an absolutely terrified anxious f*cking wreck... c'est la vie.