HPV related throat cancer?

paigemel
paigemel Member Posts: 1
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

A little background:

5 year ex-smoker {quit Dec 2016}

5 year ex-drinker {same quit time}

Possibly HPV positive {haven't been tested, positive for symptoms}

Chronically ill

Under 30

Hi Smile

So, I went to my primary care doctor about a week ago because I have very hard lymph nodes above my right clavicle and the left front and back of my neck, he barely felt one of them and didnt ask if I had any other symptoms and said it's nothing to be worried about but he would take a CBC blood test anyway. I'm sure I was visibly upset so he mentioned a biopsy of one of them but he kept stressing how unnecassary it is, I agreed to it anyway. The day after the appointment I asked my mom to let me feel all over her neck and see if her lymph nodes were this hard and swollen, and I couldnt feel a single one. When I was feeling the front of her neck compared to mine, I felt my left tonsillar lymph nodes feel like grapes? connected to eachother, I have tried to move them and stick my finger inbetween them but they seem pretty stuck to my muscle, so much so that I thought they were a part of my voice box until I didnt feel them on the right side, or on my moms neck. After I realized this, I looked in my mouth and I have a small {1cm?} mass on my right tonsil and a large amount of bumps on the back of my throat,

Link to image: https://postimg.org/image/dvhx1xi6t/

*This is not my throat, but very similar bumps

and made an appointment with an ENT and he took one look in there and said thats normal?! and I'm too young to be worried about anything? He did a bit more of a inspection than the PCP but still not thorough at all, didnt ask me any background or for other symptoms, so after a bit more pressuring he said he would send me to get an ultrasound. Now I am waiting for the biopsy and ultrasound to happen and I am very nervous for the results, also because my PCP said he would send my blood test results in the mail, and yesterday I checked and he sent me another lab order for a CBC test with no other information on what to do, or the results which worries me that something is really wrong and he doesn't to {a. scare me, b. admit he should have been worried}. I have also seen a lot of other young people online with the same symptoms {tonsil masses, bumps on throat, hard swollen lymph nodes} talking about how there doctors had completely dismissed them becuase of their ages, and pushed for tests and found out they had HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer.

Is there anyone here who has been through this or anything like this before? Is there anything I can do while I'm waiting for the biopsy and ultrasound?

Comments

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    #2
    your worry is real

    paigemel,

    Welcome to the H&N forum, sorry that you are here, but the good news is you haven’t been told “it is cancer”.

    We have all  been through the diagnosis and testing and we can identify with the stress you are feeling.

    There may be indicators in your research that it is cancer (and maybe it is), but the doctors you have visited to date are leaning the other way.   The way most of us had it confirmed was through a positive biopsy, be surgery or fine needle.  In my case when my lower tongue was scoped an ulcer was found, yuck!

    You will not be satisfied until they confirm it to be cancer or confirm it to be something else.  Something is causing your symptoms and there should be an answer.  If you don’t like what you are hearing, keep looking, there are many doctors to choose from.

    I will hold out hope that you are cancer free and maybe you ate too many apples.(kidding)

    Matt

  • OKCnative
    OKCnative Member Posts: 326 Member
    #3
    I went to a couple of ENT's

    I went to a couple of ENT's who dismissed my enlarged nodes before finding a proactive ENT. His process was simple; he had me sit back and he did a needle biopsy right then and there. The next day we had the results - SCC base of the tongue. This was later confirmed when a tongue biopsy was completed.

  • SuzJ
    SuzJ Member Posts: 446 Member
    edited September 2017 #4
    Lymph Nodes

    They are your first line of defense in any infection, cold, flu, you name it.. thats what they are there for.

    So Breathe, there is nothing you can do. Nothing. 

    My Mum and nan used to say, "Don't trouble trouble, till trouble, troubles you" Words to live by.

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