Urgent Referral

Hey,

I'm Demi, a 30 year old with a little boy called Noah.

I’m new here and hope it’s ok to post as I’m yet to have a diagnosis. 

I’ve been having a constant sore throat since October 2024. I get the razor blade throat pain and redness, swollen lumps on neck (not all the time) and it feels like hell trying to drink or eat. I also have a pain in my ears, starts as feeling like I’m under water, then pressure and cracking. 

I had antibiotics back in October for tonsillitis which helped but a few weeks later I had suspected pneumonia so were back on them. Since then every few weeks I have the same symptoms as above and now on my forth lot of antibiotics. GP’s have now ruled out tonsillitis as no spots can be seen.

The antibiotics work initially but once I finish a course it seems I have a week max before I get another spout of the above. 

GP saw me on the 16th and did an urgent referral, on the referral letter it states a ‘head and neck cancer referral’ and in my GP notes ‘suspected head and neck cancer’. 

My appointment is this coming Thursday (23rd). 

I’m really worried as I’m not too sure what to think, maybe the GP stated this on the referral to get me seen quicker or should I start thinking seriously about what the outcome of this may actually be. 

The pain in my throat has actually started to get a little better but still have the ear ache and slight soreness when swallowing. 

I feel like I’m babbling a lot and not sure what it is I’m actually asking.., I guess I'm just a little worried and wanted to reach out. 

  • hey there

    not babble at all- I’m struggling to read/focus much lately thanks to various meds combined however digested it all…

    it’s normal to want to reach out, isn’t it?

    are you concerned or more asking people about the whole process?

    As I’m in a similar boat…

    triage calling tonight for booking tests bowel/colon/possibly other things too I hope… like you concerned having ignored a fair while & got worse as drastically dropped weight & that’s continued for ver a month putting it on dropping within 12-24hr periods

    just wanting some explanations to move forward again without feeling sock as a pig daily & in more pain than body is used to managing- triggered since a costochondritis relapse am sure of it although very peculiar. 

    have you had covid? My body never been the same since- with nhs respiratory diagnosing long covid related asthma due to that obvious sudden change after recovery I never got back to before!!!

    excuse such a long reply & using your own situation to compare to my own 

    Cx 

  • I'm so sorry you're going through this too.., it's hard not to let your mind go into overdrive isn't it!

    I've had covid 3 times, once right at the start and then twice whilst I were pregnant and since them I seem to get poorly quite often. 

    Please keep me updated on how you get on xxx 

  • Still no call for test dates- hopefully later today as was told but more likely tomorrow…they’ll find I’m far from straight forward when they start looking into my last few years medically! Hopefully all is interlinked so things finally make sense & then we can get whatever treatments recommended to start feeling better again *fingers crossed* xxx