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ENT Referral for tonsil cancer

Abby18
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Hello I am 23 and I’ve got an appointment tomorrow with an ENT after going to the doctors a few weeks ago thinking I had strep throat again. The doctor was worried and made another see me and said how my tonsil is abnormal in size I have one very large tonsil whereas the other is barely visible it’s been like this for ages I just assumed it was due to having a previous infection so never got it checked out. They sent me with a 2WW to the ent to check for tonsil cancer and I am so anxious I have really bad health anxiety and I have so much other health situations going on with my family so they are unable to come with me I feel so sick with my anxiety I suffer from it bad so this has made it even worse.

i was wondering if anyone has experienced a tonsil referral before and could give me some insights in what I should expect tomorrow? Is it likely they would do any tests for the first appointment or will it just be a conversation? If there is any tests what are they like and are they painful? 

thank you for any help and I hope everyone had a good Christmas :)

  • Hello Abby18

    I can see from your post that you were due to see the ENT specialist yesterday. How did the appointment go? 

    I hope that the team was able to give you some reassurance. Do let us know how you get on if you're able to. 

    Best wishes, 
    Jenn
    Cancer Chat moderator 

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Jenn

    Hello Jenn,

    it did go well he said that he doesn’t think it seems anything sinister because of my health and age and said to contact the doctors again if it gets worse. I was relieved but then had my doctors contact me today saying a swab I did a few days before came back strep c/g heavily positive so now have a lot of antibiotics but I’m then overthinking now that maybe it affected what the specialist saw as the size difference is no longer noticeable since my usually normal side of my throat and tonsil has swollen up :/ I know I’m probably overthinking it but I can’t help but be worried still that maybe it wasn’t as noticeable and I was so anxious during the meeting I forgot to say some other symptoms I’ve been feeling. 

  • Offline in reply to Abby18

    Hi there I just wanted come here and say that I went through exactly the same thing as you I had what was tonsilites for 4 months antibiotics would work but it would come back they put me through ENT cancer pathway and when I did see a consultant he gave me more antibiotics and steriods and it went and hasn’t come back since and this was all in June this year. What he did say to me was that Gp wasn’t giving me the right dose of antibiotics and because what I had was strep it was persistent and taking longer to heal. Hope that helps 

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