I find a small lump on the left hand side of my neck in early December 2012. I try the usual approach of ignore it and see if it goes away, but that doesn't work. So I try to diagnose the problem on the internet. Decide it is an infected gland following a recent sore throat. The internet doctor says I should go to the GP if it doesn't go down in 3 weeks. I make a note in my diary. I lead a busy life and I like to be organised.
About 7 weeks elapse. I have several excuses: Xmas and the New Year, been busy at work, Mum is ill again, it's snowing heavily, I have a cold, I am spending a lot of time watching the Australian Open Tennis on TV. Finally arrange to see the GP on the last day of January 2013. I'm still disappointed that Andy Murray didn't win the tennis and this is more on my mind than the lump.
Never seen this Doctor before, I'm rarely ill and I always try very hard to avoid going to the Surgery. She briefly looks at the lump and say I will have to have a blood test and have an appointment for the hospital. I ask her what the lump is. She says she doesn't know, it could be several things.
Phone call the next day from the Surgery to say my hospital appointment is next Wednesday. I am a little concerned as I know the NHS doesn't usually move that swiftly unless they suspect cancer. I am also going to a hospital just over 40 miles away but there are 2 hospitals much nearer my home. I ask if I can go to one of those instead, they say no because those hospitals don't have the right sort of clinic. The paperwork turns up confirming the appointment. I see the code 2WW on it. I also see that code on the forms when I have my blood test.
Investigation on the internet shows that 2WW means suspected cancer. It also shows that the hospital I am going to has an Oncology Department, which the nearer ones don't have. I go back onto the internet doctor site that I use and put my symptoms in again in more detail. There is a long list of what they think could be wrong with me, but cancer is right down at the bottom. I start reading about neck cancer on the internet, I have never heard of it before. I see that I don't have any of the risk factors they mention, and none of the pictures match my lump. I convince myself that the NHS are just being cautious, there is probably a very small chance of it being cancer. I think I have got a problem with my thyroid or perhaps a blocked saliva gland.
My husband and I set off for the hospital appointment, we are a little concerned but not particularly worried. We both think the lump is something harmless that will probably just need removing, hopefully a minor procedure. I hope it will get sorted before the beginning of March when Murray plays in the USA hard court tournaments. I hate anything disrupting my tennis viewing.
