Still worried about throat cancer

[hazelbritt]

Thanks Elen. Will try to work out how to do that in future.

[hazelbritt]

Hey guys,

I've got an ongoing fear of throat cancer, mainly because of the ear pain (and slight sore throat) that I have been experiencing for the past 5 months or so. It isn't constant, I've had some weeks where I haven't noticed any throat/ear pain, but it has been fairly persistent.

Around the time that this all started, I was also having stomach issues. I had an endoscopy and was diagnosed with hiatus hernia and oesophagitis from acid reflux. I was prescribed some ranitidine tablets, but I decided not to take them as I was worried about side effects (omeprazole had been previosuly prescribed to me and it gave me terrible stomach pain).

So here I am, still suffering with the ear pain and it almost feels tender and sore in my neck/throat quite low near my collarbone. The reasonable part of my brain believes that this is due to the acid reflux. I started taking the ranitidine tablets 3 days ago to see if it will help. So far no change, but I know it probably takes some time to have an effect.

The irrational HA part of my brain believes that this is throat cancer, and every time I feel pain in my ears or tenderness in my throat, I feel the panic rising.

[hazelbritt]

I had perfect results from my blood work last week. Would something like throat cancer make any difference to blood tests?

[MRS STRESS ED]

cancer doesn't come and go it would be there,and you would
also have other symptoms and
in answer to your results yes
something would show
Best wishes x

[Lucky802]

That's actually quite freaky as I could have written this! I have exactly the same symptoms since February. Have pain in my neck somewhere under the ear and my ear or throat get achy sometimes. At times it gets bad, other times barely noticeable but never goes away completely. I also have tingly pain on the same side under the collarbone from time to time. The pain more noticeable where I burp. Don't have probs with stomach though. Gets me really down and I keep thinking I have something sinister too :(

[hazelbritt]

cancer doesn't come and go it would be there,and you would
also have other symptoms and
in answer to your results yes
something would show
Best wishes x

Thanks for your response. I guess it's hard to know whether it's coming and going, or whether my focus was taken off of it onto other things at different points. Either way, I take your points.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

That's actually quite freaky as I could have written this! I have exactly the same symptoms since February. Have pain in my neck somewhere under the ear and my ear or throat get achy sometimes. At times it gets bad, other times barely noticeable but never goes away completely. I also have tingly pain on the same side under the collarbone from time to time. The pain more noticeable where I burp. Don't have probs with stomach though. Gets me really down and I keep thinking I have something sinister too :(

Have you been to see a doctor at all?

Sorry you are having a difficult time too!

[Elen]

Please read the below message from Admin. You are posting about a lot of different things frequently. Perhaps start a thread where you can keep all of your worries in one place.


Can posters, especially those who are posting a lot about a variety of fears please confine their posts to one thread.

This helps others to build up a clear picture of what is happening and makes it easier to offer suitable advice.

You may not see the pattern but usually it is there, especially if you are posting frequently about different things.

Your co-operation with this would be greatly appreciated.

Elen

[hazelbritt]

Please read the below message from Admin. You are posting about a lot of different things frequently. Perhaps start a thread where you can keep all of your worries in one place.


Can posters, especially those who are posting a lot about a variety of fears please confine their posts to one thread.

This helps others to build up a clear picture of what is happening and makes it easier to offer suitable advice.

You may not see the pattern but usually it is there, especially if you are posting frequently about different things.

Your co-operation with this would be greatly appreciated.

Elen

Sorry, I didn't mean to cause confusion. I guess I am hoping to reach out to people who have experienced similar worries about specific things. It seems like casting quite a wide net to start a thread about throat cancer/leukaemia/skin cancer/ALS/MS/whatever other disease or symptom is concerning me at any given time.

I also like to look back at past threads and will often search for key words in thread titles. To me, it seems like it would be helpful for others trying to find encouragement from the experience of others if separate worries are given their own thread. Do you disagree?

[Fishmanpa]

Sorry, I didn't mean to cause confusion. I guess I am hoping to reach out to people who have experienced similar worries about specific things. It seems like casting quite a wide net to start a thread about throat cancer/leukaemia/skin cancer/ALS/MS/whatever other disease or symptom is concerning me at any given time.

I also like to look back at past threads and will often search for key words in thread titles. To me, it seems like it would be helpful for others trying to find encouragement from the experience of others if separate worries are given their own thread. Do you disagree?

I agree with admin on this. This particular thread shows this fear started in May. Between then and now you've had a few other fears but this shows a pattern in this particular fear of yours. Whether you realize it or not, it also discounts your fear as well. If this were sinister, you would be noticeably worse. I know this from personal experience. No "what ifs" or "yeah buts" about it

By merging threads, just as Elen posted, it helps those trying to help

Positive thoughts

[Lucky802]

Thanks for your response. I guess it's hard to know whether it's coming and going, or whether my focus was taken off of it onto other things at different points. Either way, I take your points.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------



Have you been to see a doctor at all?

Sorry you are having a difficult time too!

No haven't been to doctors with this one as saw the doctor a number of times with other stuff and feel embarrassed. But plan to boom an appointment soon as it keeps bothering me.