hello im new to this site. please can some one help me. at the start of my pregnancy may 2004 i started to get a sore throat which became very sore and a sore tongue i do how ever suffer with sinus problems. when i was about 7 months into my pregnancy i started to get a nasty taste on the left side of my mouth and now im experiencing pain under my tongue with occasional ear pain i have seen a oral surgeon who said he couldnt see any lesions and he then scaned my subdimandular gland a said it was all clear. he then went on to have a full xray of my teeth as my wisdom tooth on the left is coming through. iget results on the 23rd june 2005 i do now have a tender gland in my neck and im so worried that i have mouth cancer i have a beautiful little girl and i want to be here for her when she grows up. i am currently on zyban to help me give smoking.
PLEASE HELP ME

Hello worried mum

Your oral surgeon couldn't see anything that could be a mouth cancer. The salivary gland was normal. The tender gland could be due to a throat infection. Wisdom teeth that are unerrupted often get blamed for the ache and get taken out needlessly. The pain you are experiencing could be jaw muscle pain which can present as earpain or from the area of the wisdom teeth. It is often related to clenching and/or other oral activity. Try keeping your teeth apart, not leaning on your jaw, stopping any mouth activity like biting your lip, fingernails, cheek, chewing gum, etc and go on a soft diet to rest the muscles. Also follow the advice given previously. If I am right, you will notice an improvement. Let me know how you get on.

Best wishes
Vinod

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

Try not to worry too much about your concerns as the panic factor will have you all over the place. If anything is wrong and its confirmed, then let us know on the site and you will get loads of moral support as well as advice, practical tips and a shoulder to cry on. If all is well, which i hope it is, then let us know how your pregnancy goes.
i gave up smoking when i was diagnosed with cancer. It was enough to scare into doing so though with all the extra worry i could have done with a fag at the time. It is difficult but gets easier in time until you kind of forget about it as a habit...strange really.
What i found really useful was my local NHS stop smoking clinc which is about a six week course aimed at helping smokers as a group to give up in a team effort atmosphere. you all try together to succeed....and if you refrain for one year you get your achievement certificate which is nice finishing touch.
take care for now and good luck
steve

thank you for all your kind messages.
ive had so many health problems that is starting to get me down beyond belief. ive now been told that i have tonsilitis strange (considering i had them out when i was five). ive still got the pain under my tongue and now i can feel it in the top i have a hard lump on the roof of my mouth just beside the last molar which can be quite painful but my husband and my older daughter has this im really starting to panic now. what is the little hard lump ive got one on both sides but only one side hurts. could this just be me blowing evey thing out of proportion. i have this horrible habit of sticking my tongue right out to see if i can see anything on top and underneath, could i have strained my tongue (is that possible). please reply

its me again im so sorry
right im going to relay all my symptoms
7wks preganat i got a sore throat only on the left side with a nasty taste then i started to get upper back pain very painful at times docs kept telling me that it was hormones. this went on every day with breathlessness until later on in pregnancy and then i started to get a sore tip of tongue and blocked sinuses. they sent me to e n t and he said my vocal chords were fine.
still got upper back pain sore throat occasionally sore tip of tongue i was treated with a abcess on tonsil bud in december the antibiotics took the nasty taste away but now left with pepper taste on left side of tongue with pain. tonsil is about 1 and half cm. the
docs cant put it down to hormones now the baby is 4 mths old. still got blocked sinuses upper back pain and oral probs 1 yr later.the oral surgeon said he couldnt see any thing suspicious. please please help me with some advice ive never felt so ill!!!!. just one last question? i have had soooo many blood test done would any cancer of the head and neck show up in blood test as i have been poorly now for over a year would it have shown as an abnormality in the blood. please REPLY

Try not to be scared. Being aware is important and is not a bad thing. It shows you care for yourself and for your family and want to feel well.

Re the blood tests. I had an occult cancer diagnosis. It was a full blood test that set me onto that journey of diagnosis. I felt tired and low and had little interest in anything except going back to bed to lie down after just getting up. This was a noticeable change for someone who mostly manages on 5 hours sleep before and now.

The blood sample showed up just one thing - inflammation. This does not mean in itself that a person has cancer. In fact it was almost dismissed as I do have an arthritic problem which can show as inflammation in the blood.

But I also did have a small lump in my neck and I had felt lousy and was very sleepy for about 9 months before. So my doc got an appointment for me within 10 days. They gave me two fine needle Biposies at the same session and a week later they told me the lump contained was of secondary undifferentiated squamous cell carcinoma and they had no idea where the main primary cancerwas. (It was not found even after 6 surgery bioposies)

So blood tests can have a role in identifying this. So if you have had inflammation i'm sure it would have been picked up by now. You sound worried. I ask you to trust your gut instinct. You know you feel different than you used to so get checked out again. Ask for a referral again, but remind yourself that you are just being cautious. You don't have cancer until they say that word carcinoma or similar. Even when they do you don't feel that much different the following day apart from more terrified than before when you wondered. The disbelief is quite overwhelming.

Excessive fatigue is a sign to look out for, but with new baby it would be hard to judge if the baby is wearing you out, or if it is something else.

If you feel something is wrong it's best to get checked out again. Sleep well tonight knowing you will ask one more time for a check up. You can do no more than that. Panicking will make any symptoms you have worse as will poking at lumps and bumps in the mouth. It sounds as if you are feeling rather run down too, which as sufferers of sore throats that most of use here have been and still often have we know it can make you feel under the weather.

Not all sore throats are cancer. Some are just sore throats and some sinus problems are made worse when pollen is high as you probably know.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PaulineT,

Hello worried mum

All those experts checking your throat and mouth haven't found a mouth cancer yet. So quit worrying about that.

There are so many causes of a stuffy sinus: infections and allergies. So get that sinusitis investigated.The sore throat, too.

The sore tongue could be caused by a vitamin or mineral deficiency or 'forever unknown cause'. It could be due to tongue pressure against the teeth caused by habit (often seen in stressed individuals); the advice referred to earlier will help there. Learn to keep the teeth apart and jaw relaxed and avoid all prolonged oral activity that is beyond minimal talking (no shouting or chattering) and eating (no chewy foods). If all is normal a psychogenic cause - particularly a masked depression - should be considered.

Relaxation is the first step to getting well.

Best wishes
Vinod

Dear worried mum.
I feel your anguish as iv'e never forgotten the feeling of fear when you feel run down and ill and you can't put a finger on it, but let me stress that by worrying yourself night and day you will feel worse as the anxiety and the depression will bring on more symptoms of illness and overshadow any physical ailments you may have. I spent time in an MHU ward to deal with my fear as i almost cracked completely with worry.
Its frustrating when you can't put a finger on whats making you feel lousy.
Usually, any cancer growths in the mouth or on rhe tongue would be visibly detectable by an oncologist, and any unusual growths in the neck would be picked up by an Ultra-scan.
Following your instincts is no bad thing though as when i first felt pain at the back of my tongue my GP told me to take sudafed as i had an inner ear infection. It never felt like that and i thought the lump i felt there was serious, though my doctor seemed to have no interest in looking any further than her own diagnosis. After many weeks of different medicine i tried to explain about the lump and the pain to the doctor again but she stood by her ignorance of the situation so i took myself to hospital and insisted someone look at me properly. Two days later i was diagnosed with tongue Carcinoma and cancer traces in my neck. I still feel bitter towards her for not giving me a little more thought.
But........you have been checked over and all seems ok.
If you are any doubt though and you feel that you have not had a thorough enough examination then ask for more scans, or even a biopsy on any lumps you feel in your mouth as once this is done you can be sure that you won't have cancer and you will immediately feel that a weight has been lifted from around your neck.
if you feel the need to chat and want to sound off then you can e-mail me. just ask.

<<Its frustrating when you can't put a finger on whats making you feel lousy.>>

I agree with you Steve. I think many of us knew there was something not quite right, but could not quite put our finger on it.

hi there its me again!!!!!
i have been back to see the oral surgeon to get the results of my xray to be told that i have a horizontal impacted wisdom tooth on the right lower side, but was unable to shed any light as to why i was complaining of pain on the left side and ear and neck pain. since taking the advice of dr joshi i have however found that if i dont continue sticking my tongue out as far as i can to see if there is anything there the pain has subsided. the surgeon suspect that the sore throat could be from blocked sinuses. i am now being referred to e n t i will keep you posted. can i just say thank you to all the responses that i have recieved it has kept me more hopeful and that i can enjoy my day with my little girl everytime i read them. X

Well that's just great news. But see you were sort of right you do have something wrong - a wisdom tooth problem. Youw ere not imagining discomfort your xray shows that. Although wisdoms are painful they are normal for most of us so be cheered.

great news Worried Mum
all the best

Paul

Glad to hear everything is okay. Best of Luck
Terry

great to hear it was nothing serious.

hi its me again
im having a bit of trouble with my left side again (mouth) i have got the most annoying sore throat on that side and neck pain and pain swallowing on that side in my throat by my adams apple if ladys have them. could this be from my wisdom tooth i have been sleeping well because it is really sore. plus my nose is bleeding when im blowing to clear my sinus could this also contribute to the probs. thank you for taking the time to read this letter.