Anxiety after dental screening and throat cancer

[emmegee]

My health anxiety has returned in full swing.

Went to the dentist yesterday for my 6 month cleaning. They do an oral cancer screening with a blue light device called a velscope. It shows "suspicious areas" (inflamation, infections, lesions, precancerous growths). Basically any area with increased cellular/metabolic activity. 6 months ago I had a small area that showed up on my soft palate. They said we would just monitor it and recheck at next appointment.

Yesterday the same area "lit up" and was also visible without the vescope as a red area. They told me "not to worry" as this could be many things. They told me to follow up with an ear nose throat specialist for further investigation.

I already had an appointment set up for some voice issues I've been having for the past several months (frequent throat clearing, hoarseness after speaking for a period of time) I had been hoping/assuming these were laryngopharyngeal reflux related but wanted a dr to take a look.

So immediately I started freaking out that I have throat cancer and that is the cause of both issues.

Anyways just needed to vent. This site has always been helpful when I am in the depths of my health anxiey episodes.

I saw my primary dr and reached out to my therapist and am increasing my klonopin and starting back up sertraline. Also re-reading Claire Weekes. I somehow have to "float" through the next two weeks until I can see the ENT specialist.

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[utrocket09]

My health anxiety has returned in full swing.

Went to the dentist yesterday for my 6 month cleaning. They do an oral cancer screening with a blue light device called a velscope. It shows "suspicious areas" (inflamation, infections, lesions, precancerous growths). Basically any area with increased cellular/metabolic activity. 6 months ago I had a small area that showed up on my soft palate. They said we would just monitor it and recheck at next appointment.

Yesterday the same area "lit up" and was also visible without the vescope as a red area. They told me "not to worry" as this could be many things. They told me to follow up with an ear nose throat specialist for further investigation.

I already had an appointment set up for some voice issues I've been having for the past several months (frequent throat clearing, hoarseness after speaking for a period of time) I had been hoping/assuming these were laryngopharyngeal reflux related but wanted a dr to take a look.

So immediately I started freaking out that I have throat cancer and that is the cause of both issues.

Anyways just needed to vent. This site has always been helpful when I am in the depths of my health anxiey episodes.

I saw my primary dr and reached out to my therapist and am increasing my klonopin and starting back up sertraline. Also re-reading Claire Weekes. I somehow have to "float" through the next two weeks until I can see the ENT specialist.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

My dad has throat cancer, his horseness was all the time not just after speaking for a while. He also hardly ever cleared his throat. He always sounded like he had laryngitis for months.