Hello all - I will try and keep this short and sweet - in summary had recurring pain in right ear and right of throat since beginning of Jan. saw GP beginning of Jan who checked throat and ear couldn’t see any sign of infection but gave antibiotic ear drops - no improvement so went back again in mid Feb and oral antibiotics given. Again no improvement at which point I checked my mouth myself and felt very small lump swelling in my mouth near the base of my tongue in an area which you can’t see by looking in mouth I almost had to push tongue aside to feel it. I went back to my go who couldn’t see it herself but she did refer me to ent on urgent referral. Saw Doctor in ENT mid March - he checked my throat etc using the camera through my nose but didn’t feel inside mouth and said he couldn’t see anything untoward and told me it was acid reflux - I probably should have said at the time that I knew it definitely wasn’t as have suffered from this before on and off and know that the pain I’ve been feeling is totally different. Since then the swelling lump has grown bigger and covering a larger area moving towards the back of my throat and into the soft pallet. It feels to me obviously different to the left side. I went back to the doctors last Thursday she can’t feel it but I don’t think she is feeling in the right place but has agreed to send me for a 2nd opinion which will obviously not be on the 2 week pathway now.
i must admit I’m seriously doubting myself thinking am I going mad the fact that I can feel something that no one else can see - there is no swelling or obvious lumps in my neck.
what I think I am actually getting at by posting on here is whether or not anyone has had a similar experience where the professionals were unable to see any change which did turn out to be something further down the line.
thank you and apologies for the ramble
what I think I am actually getting at by posting on here is whether or not anyone has had a similar experience where the professionals were unable to see any change which did turn out to be something further down the line.
Don’t apologise. Go with your gut feeling and if you can, go privately for that first consultation.
I shall simply tell you my story. One Friday I felt a lump at the back of my tongue. It am a retired vet and I knew immediately it was a squamous cell carcinoma. Two days later I was at GPs who couldn’t see anything but as a service to a fellow professional referred me straight away on the cancer pathway.
I was examined by a Maxfac consultant who again didn’t see anything but went to find a nasoendoscope and looked again. His opinion was that the swelling was simply the normal papillae you get at the back of your tongue. My argument was that it wasn’t the same the other side. We agreed that an MRI was in order ( I suspect that if I hadn’t been medically qualified I would have been discharged back to my GP)
I had that MRI and the rest is history.
So get that referral and I really hope it’s nothing.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
