Hi,
I am an extremely worried father. My son has been having recurrent sore throats since he started pre school at 3 years old. Now he's five. I've seen he's got asymmetrical tonsils after his first sore throat, which was in 16th of December 2022, and although they were smaller you could still see a difference in them, I remember telling my wife back then that his right tonsil looks bigger. Anyway, since then they grew bigger but they stopped growing for now, with the right one looking bigger than the left one. Pictures from October 2023 to June 2024 don't show any increase but they certainly didn't go down. He's been on a few antibiotic courses throughout the years for his sore throats.
About 3 weeks ago I noticed my son has a hot potato voice and the sides of his neck were a bit swollen. When I looked in his throat his tonsils were red. He said it's not painful but his food intake wasn't great, which I expected. He didn't have any fever whatsoever and he had a blocked nose, especially at night and he was snoring. Three weeks later and the right side of his neck is still swollen, not a massive lump but you can see the difference. His voice is better and he doesn't snore anymore. Just the lump which is not painful to touch according to him.
While looking on the internet for symptoms I found that tonsil asymmetry with a lump on the side of his neck is a classic sign of tonsilar lymphoma. It took many calls to the surgery to see a gp and after 3 weeks he was finally seen. The gp said he is not worried and the right tonsil is slightly bigger than the left one but it will go down. They look a lot more different when you just look inside his throat but when he is screaming the difference is not that big. They both look big, so I guess the position is different maybe? The GP also said that his lymph nodes are "a bit swollen" (don't know what that means) and he is also not worried about that. He said that we will have a follow up exam in 2 weeks and if the lymph nodes are the same my son will have some blood tests.
Is the GP right in his findings and I'm getting extremely worried about nothing? He said that his liver and spleen are not palpable, but after reading documentation on the internet, it says that's a late symptom from when the cancer is more advanced,and that enlarged liver and spleen are more common with lymphoma and not tonsilar lymphoma. I also read a study with common symptoms for each age group and for his age group the most common symptom was tonsilar asymmetry and snoring. He doesn't get night sweats, he didn't lose weight, no fatigue and he doesn't complain of pain when swallowing. But I am afraid that it might still be something dangerous and I feel like I'm failing my son for not being able to take him to a pediatrician or an ENT doctor. What if he's got early signs of what could be the worse and is being diagnosed as recurring tonsillitis, which as I've read, cand be also a symptom. If it's really something, I want to find it in its early stages and not when it's too late. I know I shouldn't read things I find on the internet but my brain is trying to find reassuring signs that all of this is in my head, and I'm failing massively. Why does he have a lump on the right side where the seemingly bigger tonsil is? Could tonsilits affect and enlarge one tonsil more than the other? I know he is getting a lot of viruses from school and I'm trying to see the better picture here, but when I look at the happy boy which I am blessed to have, I can't accept the thought of failing him.
Why would that lump not go down after 3 weeks? Is also not painful to touch, according to him. I know you can't tell for sure if there is asymmetry or not in his tonsils, I guess that's my biggest concern though. I think waiting for some concrete answers is one of the hardest things to do and I feel like I'm going mad, especially waiting 2 weeks until his next appointment. I just want my happy cheeky son to be healthy. Sorry for the long post, I was trying to give as many details as possible about his history. In the end, I guess I'm looking for some reassurance, which I'm not getting really form anywhere. Thank you in advance!
