Of course oral cancer fear fuels up on a Friday night

[Worrywart84]

....because there’s nothing better than knowing you have to suffer the entire weekend before you can even call your dentist to demand a referral.

I’ve posted about this worry before in other threads but in case you aren’t stalking me, I have this red “sore” on my upper gum way in the back that I’ve noticed since June. Dentist dismissed it as irritation in August—when he dismissed it I sort of did too until I had my cleaning 10 days ago and on the way there I looked and the sore was still there. When I asked him about it he said to try brushing softer and do a salt rinse and then said he could refer me to an oral surgeon and they may biopsy it—this immediately had me panicking.

I’ve been trying to do as instructed but it is NOT going away and that’s not surprising given that it’s been hanging around since June.

So I obsessively googled oral cancer stats and then found that due to my age (34), I have a low chance of this being oral cancer. However, I went down the google rabbit hole again tonight, scouring photos and articles, and two things came up that have me absolutely freaking:

Erythroplakia, which is basically a creepy red patch that’s likely cancerous or precancerous and should be removed ASAP and also has a high recurrence rate

Or

Oral Lichen Planus, which is an incurable autoimmune disorder that can cause a red sore and carries with it the increased risk of cancer

Now all of a sudden I am terrified that while maybe I might not have oral cancer (yet), even having one of these sounds horrible and something that will haunt me with a cancer fear for the rest of my life.

It seems people of any age can get these so all of a sudden I don’t feel like the stats are comforting me.

My mind is saying...what ELSE could this be?! There is no benign red sore that just lasts for over 5 months. It has to be one of these awful things, doesn’t it?

[Fishmanpa]

Or

Dr. Google

Ya know, You're 34. I'm an oral cancer survivor. It's incredibly rare for OC to affect someone under 40yo. Your age and the fact that you've had "something" since June that hasn't changed or grown speaks volumes. I WISH my situation was like yours.

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It doesn't come and go nor does it stop once it starts.

Real life professional help for the illness you so obviously are afflicted by would be my recommendation.

Positive thoughts

[Worrywart84]

I’m new around here but you’re like a legend/celebrity/great and all powerful oz on this forum so I really do appreciate your reply, especially given that you have actually battled oral cancer (I hope you are well now?)

I know hands down I have HA. I have been to 2 CBT therapists before, but my anxiety didn’t seem to lessen any.

But I legit am terrified that in addition to my HA, I also may be afflicted with Erythroplakia or Oral Lichen Planus. And both have this association with increased cancer risk. I am just a mess. I have more photos of my mouth and screenshots of Internet people’s mouths on my phone right now than I care to count.

If I could just grab onto one idea of something harmless that it could be, I could try to focus on that but my hopes are shot for it just being “irritation.”

[Sparky16]

One thing I have learned, the hard way I might add, is that there are far more things out there than just what is in the textbooks. Google, and to a surprising extent medical publications and books also, do not document the wide variations of benign things that can happen. It's good that although this spot has not gone away, it has remained unchanged otherwise. Talk to your dentist on Monday about getting a referral to a oral surgeon, and try to concentrate on something else this weekend. I like to play video games or do activities on Khan academy - stuff that keeps me too busy to think.

[Worrywart84]

Thank you Sparky.

I *hope* it hasn’t changed since June. Dumb me didn’t photograph it back then. And I don’t know if my dentist would remember exactly what he saw in August compared to this last visit.

The pic I took tonight looks way creepier than the pic I took 10 days ago but I am hoping it’s just lighting and angle that’s doing that.

But yeah, no drastic change I guess.

[Worrywart84]

Woke up this morning convinced there’s nothing else this could be but cancer. Why wouldn’t it have gone away by now? Already envisioning the call after the biopsy with the horrible news.

Has anyone with an oral cancer scare ever had a red sore on their gums for this long and had it NOT be cancer?

[AMomentofClarity]

Do you use tobacco? If not your odds of having oral cancer on your gum at age 34 are practically 0. Not to mention dentists are very well trained to recognize cancer....they wouldn’t be messing around if they thought it could be. And lastly, if you had OC for 5 months, it would be huge and have spread throughout your mouth by now.

[Worrywart84]

No tobacco and just moderate alcohol. But I have read it’s on the rise in young people for unknown reasons and there are young people getting it with no known risk factors.

I wish I would have taken a pic of it back in late June to compare because technically it could be growing bc I can’t remember exactly what it looked like then.

[AMomentofClarity]

No tobacco and just moderate alcohol. But I have read it’s on the rise in young people for unknown reasons and there are young people getting it with no known risk factors.

I wish I would have taken a pic of it back in late June to compare because technically it could be growing bc I can’t remember exactly what it looked like then.

Yes it’s on the rise in younger people due to HPV, in which it occurs back near the tonsils.

You would know if it was growing over the course of 5 months....there would be no question.

[Fishmanpa]

In the months since you first started this worry, you would be pretty sick. I was as well as everyone I know who had OC.

Positive thoughts