to biopsy or not to biopsyFollow

Warning, long boring rambling about my recent medical experiences follows.

Off and on for about 2 years now I've been having sinus and ear problems. Mostly, my ear will feel clogged up and once in a while I will feel sinus pressure. When it gets bad I'll go to the doctor, get some antibiotics, and take those for a week or so. After feeling no improvement, the normal treatment is to give me a shot of antibiotics and a steroid shot and that usually clears it up for a few months, but so far it has always came back.

During this time, I have noticed some redness/swelling in the back of my throat and it almost looks like little bubbles on the same side where I have the ear issues. I've shown this to doctors and they usually say something like "yes, it looks like there is some irritation on that side" and they seem generally unconcerned about it, so I have also not been concerned.

Well, a couple of weeks ago my wife told me one of her coworkers had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The way he found out about it was when an ENT looked up his nose to diagnose head congestion and spotted a growth in his nose. They did a biopsy on the growth and it turned out to be a very serious type of cancer and it was already far advanced. With treatments he has maybe 4-5 years left to live if he is still in stage 3 (whatever that means), less time if he is already to stage 4.

Being somewhat of a hypochondriac, when I heard this I became really scared about this thing in my throat. The next day I scheduled an appointment with an ENT just to get it straightened out once and for all. He looked around, stuck a camera up my nose and down my throat, felt the bumps, told me everything looked normal and the bumps look like inflamed lymphoid tissue, similar to tonsils and adenoids. I have had my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was younger, but the ENT acted like it is almost impossible to remove all of the adenoids and this was just that same type of tissue left over and had been irritated due to allergies and drainage. He suggested getting a C.T. scan of my head to verify that nothing showed up that he couldn't see. I had the scan the next day (last Wednesday).

Today I went in to review the scan. He said everything looks good, there is no visible mass/tumor anywhere and the only thing that really shows up is the thing I have been able to see in my throat for the last few years. My options are: 1) continue to treat it as I have been and keep an eye on the thing in my throat to make sure there are no changes 2) have it removed and do a biopsy on it just to make sure.

I get the impression from him that he doesn't think it is anything to worry about, but he is willing to remove it and check it if I feel like it would make me feel better. It would definitely make me feel better to have it out and know for sure, but the process of getting it out would not be fun at all. I would have an outpatient surgery, be unconscious for 30 minutes to an hour while he cut it out and cauterized the cut. For the next 2 weeks I would have a sore throat, wouldn't be able to talk much, and wouldn't be able to exert myself.

Another advantage to having it removed is that I think it may be blocking my eustachian tube and causing the clogging of my ear.

Right now, I have allergy testing scheduled for Friday afternoon and I think I'll continue to think about the other decision for a while. I'm leaning toward having it done but any type of surgery scares me a bit. But, I think the end result of having it out and knowing everything was OK would do a lot for me just emotionally. And, it might actually clear up a lot of my problem. Also, if I do have a serious problem (the doctor said the chance is "very very very remote") I would need to know about it as soon as possible.

In any case, I'm sure I'm being overly cautious and probaby don't have anything to worry about, but I'm not sick much and when something is wrong with me (especially if it lasts for 2 years!) I fear the worst.

*sigh*

There's no debate, get it done. You're talking about a couple weeks of recovery discomfort vs. the nagging worry you've been experiencing for far too long.

Nexa

That would be terrible. I take my insurance for granted. I work for a large company that up until this year had great insurance and now we switched to a high deductible plan with a health savings account. There is a lot more to it than this but basically you can put pre-tax money into an account to use for medical expenses and it is up to you to manage your money and get the cheapest possible. If you hit a certain out of pocket maximum (it is like $5k per year or something) the plan will start paying 90% of the remaining expenses.

I was able to switch to my wife's health insurance with the federal government which is a great plan. So far for 2 visits to the ENT I have only been out of pocket $40. But, I have talked to a lot of my coworkers that don't have other options and some of them are having a terrible time. One guy's wife needs treatments for rheumatoid arthritis every 6 weeks and it costs $5400 each time.

I'd go ahead and have the procedure, since there's a good chance that the physical discomfort you're feeling in your throat will go away once you've recovered. The mental discomfort, obviously, will definitely go away once a negative result comes back from the lab.

I didn't have insurance from Dec 2002 to Aug 2005.. it sucked.

I would be on the safe side and have it removed, because if it did turn out to be something bad you would look back to this and regret not having it checked out early. Thats just my opinion though, its really your decision.

Mehh.

***** the surgery. Smoke more cigarettes and lower the odds.

Get the fu[i][/i]cking biopsy already.

If it's ordained in the stars that you're going to die a slow and painful cancerous death, best to know up front so whatever time you have left is consumed with worry and self pity

I would have it removed. Also stage 3 for most cancer patients is pretty much the stage where it's time to get your affairs in order. My father has terminal small cell lung cancer diagnosed last March a week after his 60th birthday.

He originally went in because he thought he had kidneystones. After almost a month of the doctor's f[b][/b]ucking around and misdiagnosing him they found out it was cancer.

They found it after it was extremely advanced. He is basically in stage 4 now, which is basically biding time until he passes away.

Can I have your stuff?

He'll still have his sinuses, Kelv.

the Highland way