Hi, it's been quite a while since I was here. About a month ago, I began to develop a sore spot on the left side of my throat, and then my left ear began to hurt. The pain got pretty severe, so I decided to go to the local urgent care, since I had just moved from Texas to Arizona for a short period and hadn't gotten another GP yet. The doctor at the urgent care told me basically that it was pharyngitis and gave me 500mg amoxicillin to take,which I did, but still the pain persisted. I finally went to see a regular doctor here, and after checking my ears and throat, she told me could not find anything as far as cancerous lesions or anything that looked remotely like cancer. I was greatly relieved, and i went home and kept taking the amoxicillin, but the pain got worse. Now on top of the pain in the throat, earaches, feeling a weird lump in my throat at times, and having trouble breathing or being more labored for breath than I've ever been, I've set up an appointment to see an ENT in Tucson on the 27th of February and already asked to have a laryngoscopy done which is cheaper for me since I have no insurance. I try not to look at symptoms since I know I can figure it out on my own anyway and it just makes me more scared. But it does terrify me at the thought of having throat cancer, as I've never drank and I've only smoked 5 cigarettes in my entire life and I'm 36. My biggest worry is possibly being an HPV carrier which seems worse, especially since men aren't able to be tested for it, and it can cause mutated cells to become cancerous. I dont know anyone personally who has dealt with something like this. I'd love to get some insight on this from an individual with more experience in this area. Many thanks for your time and patience.
Robert