Petrified

Hi Sooz. Welcome. Sorry to see you here. Yes waiting is the pits. All you can do is keep busy. If you aren’t t sleeping well see if your GP can prescribe you some sleeping pills. 
For the moment stay off Google. You’ll end up down a rabbit hole. 
Don’t worry about endoscopic exams. You can have a local anaesthetic so you don’t feel anything but to be truthful I never bothered as my clinicians have always been pretty slick at doing them. 
90% of referrals aren’t t cancer  and if you ate unlucky throat cancer is curable. 
One step at a time. One day at a time. 
Best wishes 

Thanks Dani. It's nice to know someone understands. I don't do Dr Google. I have trigeminal neuralgia and when I googled that when I was first diagnosed I frightened myself beyond belief. I've never consulted Dr Google since. I have some phenergan I was prescribed a year or so ago, so I might try that. Sleep is the only way to get away from the fear, so not sleeping is cruel. Best wishes Sooz

Hi Sooz99

I was wondering if any of these could help your anxiety:

here are just some ideas:

• Take a free wellbeing online courses (eg HOPE Programme)
• Try yoga/meditation/mindfulness and see if any work for you. Penny Brohn charity offers lots of free sessions
• Do whatever you love doing or dreamt of doing, as if you need treatment down the road you may need some downtime
• Talk to Macmillan support line or get a Macmillan Buddy
• As for the free Bupa support counselling

Hi Sooz99 The waiting  is the worst part  we can all testify to that. Take heart that over 90% of cancer pathway referrals aren’t cancer. It won’t take away your fear but it’s a fact.At t( moment the quickest way for gps to get people seen seems to be sending in the 2 weeks pathway, it’s doesn’t help people who are anxious but try to keep busy. As Dani says you can ask for local anaesthetic to numb the area.Hooefully yiu won’t need us after yiuve been seen But if you are  unfortunate enough to join us we are a tight knit community and will help as much as we can Pop back in when yiu need to and fingers x for a postive outcome. 
Hazel 

Thank you Hazel, it's nice to know someone is there if the outcome is not good. I'll try to keep busy.

Thanks. I'll try a bit of mindfulness and look into some of the other suggestions,  best wishes

Hi. The waiting is so stressful. Are you able to get outside for walks? I find that helps reduce anxiety - listen to radio/music as you walk. I often get off to sleep listening  to mindfulness apps or BBC Sounds have various sleepscapes which are good. Try not to think too far ahead, take it 1 day at a time. Keeping a journal of your thoughts can be a helpful tool too. 

Hi….

I know how you feel I was in same situation, but I had to wait all through Christmas, then my biopsy was inconclusive so had to have another biopsy under a general anaesthetic.

I have been diagnosed with tonsil cancer and having my operation to remove it next week.

im scared and have anxiety and struggle to sleep, Iv found a couple of apps teaching you how to meditate for anxiety and I always fall asleep after 5 mins  so that might be worth listening to

i also find the more you talk about it the less anxious you are, by the time I got my diagnosis I was a bit numb to it all.

we are all here if you need anything

good luck

caroline 

The app is called 

soothing pod and it’s all free! 

Thanks for the advice. I get to sleep quickly to start with but wake up in the night which is when all the anxiety ramps up and I feel so alone. I usually put YouTube on my tablet so I'll see if I can find something that'll help