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Possible tonsil Cancer? One tonsils bigger than the other

Zara54321
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Hey everyone!

I’ve been putting off asking this for a while out of fear but I’m hoping you can tell me what’s going on or put my mind at ease through your own experience.

 

I am a 23 year old female, I don’t smoke and I drink socially. For as long as I can remember I have always suffered from tonsilitis and get about 5 cases of it per year. 

My left tonsil has always been at least double the size of the right, and is firm and sticks out more. But from looking back at pics I’ve taken of my tonsils over the years, I’ve noticed it’s gotten slightly bigger. 

Besides having one tonsil bigger than the other, i don’t really have any other symptoms besides recurrent infections. Antibiotics always treat the infections, and I don’t have a lingering sore throat. I have however noticed a little lump in the right side of my neck (not the same side as the bigger tonsil). My doctor said it’s just swollen from the tonsillitis and would go down but it never has. It just shrunk slightly after antibiotics.

I had blood tests done which all came back normal. But I’m still worried. Even though my tonsillitis is always cleared by antibiotics, there is still sometimes little red patches and tiny white spots on the enlarged one and it often bleeds. I also get a sore throat from time to time but never a constant irritating one. I’ve gone to multiple doctors to ask for a referral to an ENT doctor and I finally got one last week after 3 cases of tonsillitis since January alone! I’m terrified of what they might say. 

All I see when I google “one tonsil bigger than the other” is tonsil cancer and it’s freaking me out! 

Has anyone had a similar experience? 

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    Hi Zara54321. Welcome to the forum.  Please be aware that we aren't doctors here, and only the nurses have any medical qualifications.

    If I can start at the end, so to speak.  Like many people with strange symptoms, you've consulted Dr Google and frightened yourself!  Well, take comfort because we've all been there and done that!  Dr Google is a quack who should have been struck off years ago!  Much of the information you find by Googling is over-hyped, out of date, and downright inaccurate.  Sites in the US are typically worse than UK sites, with US hospital sites (bar a few exceptions) being the worst of all. What they're trying to do is frighten people into paying lots of $ to visit their particular hospital.  You can generally rely on the UK NHS website, and of course the information on Cancer Research UK.

     

    You have done the right thing in insisting on an ENT appointment, but given your age, you're a non-smoker, and tonsil cancer is a rare cancer, I don't think you have any reason to worry. Look at this as your opportunity to get this problem sorted. You might also consider whether or not you should ask for a tonsillectomy.  It's not the most pleasant operation, but given your multiple attacks of tonsillitis it might be a  good option for you. 

    Please let us know how you get on at your appointment, and we're alway here to talk and support. 

     

     

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