Pretty sure I have cancer at 27 and not sure what I should do next

[whatdoidonowthenn]

Around 8 months ago I had a severe chest infection & after recovering, ever since I have been coughing constantly throughout the day because I’ve got phlegm in my throat that won’t go away. The cough has never stopped and it’s at the point where I’m trying and struggling to cough up the mucus every 5-10 mins. It always feels like the same phlegm that I can’t quite get up, but when I do manage to cough it up, it is green and looks like snot.

I’ve called the GP twice during these months and have been told there’s nothing they can do..

About 8 weeks ago I developed a fissure in my top lip (inside the mouth) which is not healing.

I called my doctor and she referred me to an ENT who is removing the fissure on the 17th and then testing it. I asked if it was cancer and he said he couldn’t say.

For the past two weeks I’ve been really struggling with acid reflux and the feeling of something being stuck at the bottom of my throat nearer to my collar bones. I’ve also just noticed some white patches at the back of my mouth. I’ve included some photos. I know nobody here could diagnose me but I’m wanting to prepare myself for the worst..

I’ve also been incredibly fatigued, struggling with headaches every day which sometimes goes to my ears, and a few times a week am experiencing dizziness which affects my hearing and I go almost deaf with buzzing.

i have a handle on getting the fissure removed but what do I do next? Is it simply going to the GP and telling them everything? Would I be able to class it as an emergency same day appointment?

Is it better to seek help privately?

should I wait until the 17th to tell them my other symptoms - but it’s the maxillo facial unit?

any advice on the best path to take here would be appreciated. im massively worried and convinced it’s cancer. I’m only 27

Pics attached - I have been eating chocolate hence the brown fingers 🤣

Not helpful. At all. Firstly health anxiety if that’s what it is can be massively debilitating. It’s also really shitty to dismiss symptoms that may be serious.
I was told I was over reacting. That it was fine, and it turns out it’s not fine, I have sarcoma and have surgery soon to remove a huge chunk of my hip muscle and if treatment doesn’t go to plan I may lose my whole leg, so don’t be so rude.

@whatdoidonowthenn go back to the GP. Tell him your concerns.

Sounds like asthma and acid reflux. White spots could be throat infection. I don’t think it sounds like cancer

I struggle with all these symptoms when I'm under stress.
Sometimes I don't realise the enormity of the stress I'm under at the time and I have the physical symptoms you describe.
Then the stress situation resolves and I feel better again and no physical symptoms.

It's horrible as I've convinced myself I'm seriously unwell so many times which only exacerbates the feelings.

Your GP is best placed to advise you. They have your notes and they know what's been done already.
Nothing you've said indicates a particular cancer. What do you think you have cancer of?
Health anxiety causes people's minds to go into overdrive. It can also cause all the symptoms you've mentioned.

Most of that sounds like post-viral syndrome. Your chest infection was only 8 months ago. It can take a long time for your immune system to settle after an infection. All sorts of weird and wacky things can happen in the meantime. I'm prone to getting mouth ulcers, white spots on my tongue, a lingering cough, extreme tiredness, migraines, reflux and gut issues. Are you taking any supplements?

Acid reflux can cause those symptoms- I had a Nissan funoplication because mine was causing a a co era t horrendous cough .

Have you tried a ppi such as omeprazole ?

I took 20 mg omeprazole twice daily plus 300mg ranitidine at night - it worked for a long time .

I had the Nissan in 2012 .

You need to go to
Gp . Do t try and self diagnose- ask for referral.
I had camera down throat first
Then further tests
Then Surgery.

I had a cough that wouldn’t go away and felt like I was constantly trying to clear my throat. I had acid reflux for years. I was also constantly exhausted and breathless from the smallest exertion.

I went to the GP and they did blood tests and detected severe anaemia. And it turned out that I did have cancer, but not of the throat or lungs or thyroid. It was bowel cancer. Of course I was convinced it must have spread to my lungs and caused my other symptoms but I have been scanned multiple times head to toe and everything is clear. When I was in hospital having my surgery I mentioned the reflux and they put me on a proton pump inhibitor. Game changer! All my cough/throat symptoms disappeared. The only symptom that was clinically significant in my cancer diagnosis was the fatigue/breathlessness as that was caused by anaemia from my tumour bleeding internally. The rest was caused by reflux, which was easily fixed.

It sounds like reflux to me, but the dr is the place to know and we can’t see. You could try something for acid reflux though it won’t hurt.

As a nurse, I can’t think of any type of cancer that would be consistent with your symptoms, but without tests nobody will ever guarantee that, which I imagine is why the doctor responded as he did.
When you’ve been to the doctors or hospital appointments, we’re bloods done? Usually (not always) with cancer there would be some markers in your bloods that would be deranged and you’d be referred for further investigation.
Have you lost a significant amount of weight recently?
Been breathless?
Any changes to your heart rate?
Any signs of a fever?
Suffered night sweats?
Any pain?
Do you smoke?
Drink alcohol?
All these questions are asked to aid suspected cancer diagnosis or referrals.

I also don’t think your symptoms sound like asthma as suggested. Unless your asthma was exacerbated and led to chest infection, asthma isn’t usually associated with green sputum.
To be honest I’d be looking more at an impaired immune system. How is your diet? Exercise? Sleep? Etc. Bit of a sensitive one (not expecting an answer) but do you practice safe sex? If not do you get regular sexual health checks?

As for the next steps, tell your GP your concerns immediately. They’re bound by national targets to respond pretty fast and get you in for any relevant investigations. Hopefully that will ease your mind. I wouldn’t go private without any diagnosis. You could end up paying a fortune for a few routine tests xx

Oh dear I left out the most important part of my story. I’m going to be fine OP, currently having treatment but the prognosis is positive.

Go to the GP and tell them your symptoms and be honest how much this is impacting your life emotionally. Regardless of whether it’s physical or psychological you need to get it dealt with and get on with living.

I have only read page one so far, so apologies if someone else has already mentioned this, but they look exactly like tonsil stones to me. Tonsil stones can also cause the type of cough you are describing, and the feeling of something stuck in your throat. I am not sure about the tiredness, unless you are losing sleep over the coughing, and or the worrying. As for coughing-up green phlegm, that does sound like an infection that unfortunately sounds like it needs antibiotics as it has been going on for a while now, and if you have been fighting an infection for a while that could easily be the cause of your tiredness. So, I think that you have at least two things (not including your fissure) going on here, tonsil stones and a mouth throat infection - both of which could be related, but neither have anything to do with cancer.

It is even possible that your fissure is also related to your other two symptoms, but whether they are or not, whenever you see a medical expert be prepared to be honest about your general lifestyle, and always mention any other irregularities you have noticed in your body - even if it is something like thrush, which by the way can also cause white patches in your mouth.

My advice @whatdoidonowthenn is that (if you have time) you write an email to your GP at the practice, and copy it to the practice manager, this morning, before 08:00am. If you can't do it by then, then do it as soon as you can - this needs sorting, and I am very disappointed with your GP that you have been fobbed off so far. You need to attach your photo of the inside of your mouth to your email to the practice. If your practice does not give you individual GP's email addresses, then send your email - marked "urgent please" if it is not to a particular named person - to the email address that they do supply, and if it is not the practice managers direct email address, also mark it for the attention of a doctor (yours might not be working today) and for the attention of the Practice Manager.

Practice Managers are usually very helpful, polite, and a great resource to use whenever there are any problems at a surgery. I will give you an example that you could tweak to suit you if you are pushed for time:

Dear Dr. Xxxxxx

Please find the attached photo of the inside of my mouth, which shows some white patches towards the back of my mouth. I have included the photo in case it can help you understand my problem, and help with any treatment I may need.

I have had an almost constant cough for xxxxxx now (or, you could be more specific with since January, or, November 2022, or since I had the flu in d a t e), my cough occurs about every xx minutes throughout the day - sorry OP, I can't remember your exact description of the timing etc, so please do your own description - and it feels as if I am trying to clear something from my xxxxx (throat or lungs? Or just leave it as clear or cough something up).
I sometimes manage to cough up some green phlegm, but unfortunately that does not stop my feeling of needing to clear my throat.

I am of course happy to come to an appointment with you, as I realise that a photo on it's own, and a quick description of my symptoms, are probably not very good diagnostic tools. These symptoms are really getting me down now, and the lengh of time of their duration is beginning to make me think it could be something more serious like cancer.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this

Whatdoidonowthenn

I am sure that you can write a much better email than this OP, I just hoped it might help you think of the right words if your time is short! Oh, and Good Luck with getting this sorted very quickly now!

This can be caused by something as benign as a food sensitivity, such as lactose intolerance.

Re. The fissure. I get slits in the corner of my mouth if I use certain toothpaste, such as Corsodyl.

If you are coughing so frequently I’m nor surprised you are complaining of a headache - I’d guess it’s self induced.

You seem very anxious - obviously follow up with the medical professionals who are the people to listen to but I’d hazard a guess that you have got yourself very worked up and really - stressing yourself out isn’t going to help your mental or even your physical health. I remember getting myself so angry and worked up over some problem outside my control that my normally very good blood pressure was sky high - up from 120 to 170+ - it took 3 days of me resting and actively “being calm” before my BP came back down again - I felt terrible for 3 days - I’ll - and it was all self inflicted, potentially dangerous and unnecessary - I never let that happen now - I realised that by over-reacting I could actually be putting my health at risk - I suggest you think about that if you are concerned about your health. I have also had a completely unfounded worry about cancer that started in November and has only just been resolved a few days ago - I think I handled it pretty well - my view is that I’m not going to work myself over something only to find it is nothing - which it what it was - well not nothing - they found the cause and it’s nothing for me to worry about - I’m glad I didn’t waste any time or energy stressing myself out - it would have been completely unnecessary - just wait until you have some facts and someone tells you something that actually is worth being concerned about. Hope it works out for you.

I'm sorry you have been so unwell. Since it started with a chest infection, could it be long covid? You mention dizziness, fatigue, buzzing in your ears (tinnitus is common post-covid). It can affect your body in so many ways because it is not just a respiratory disease, it's a vascular one, so causes organ damage. It also weakens your immune system. If you have indeed had covid in the last year then I would flag that to your doctors.

The symptoms you have were what I was having for about a year, turned out to be an asthma flare up and GERD.

I think that when you have these daily symptoms, some of which are symptoms of cancer, its normal to become anxious and zero in on that.

I was also 27/28 when I had this problem, it lasted about 9 months, then things got better.

Have another gp appt, tell them your symptoms and ask what they can do to help you.
My gp started me on ABs repeatedly, referred me to the chest clinic and sent me for an xray because it had been going on for so long, I also had blood tests.

When the ABs made no difference I needed steroids which helped quite a lot.

Then they prescribed me omeprazole and I got montelukast from the chest clinic.

Have you had any bloods done? Being low in B12, iron and Vitamin D can cause some of your symptoms. If you have , get the results and check them yourself as you need them all to be high in the range, not borderline.
You’ve not had Covid?

Hi @whatdoidonowthenn - your cough could be many things. Asthma, surely. A post-viral response, too. Gastric reflux also causes a chronic cough. So do allergies. Regardless, it absolutely needs to be investigated and dealt with! Your GP surgery sounds like it’s manned by a dragon.

Many other conditions cause the symptoms you have, there are a couple of bloods that the GP could ask for that would show if you had the C or not but along that you should have hormone panel-both hyper and hypo thyrodism cause lump feeling in the throat,cause them to cough etc.

And stop eating junk like chocolate, go low GI and unprocessed food. High carb uber processed foods would make anyone feel like piece of brown and smelly.

Hi

I work in ENT/Maxillofacial . If you have been seen by a Consultant already you don’t need to do anything. You will be in good hands and going along the pathway accordingly. They always thoroughly investigate everything. It will all be going on behind the scenes. Try not to worry too much.

You could always contact the Maxillofacial secretaries via the hospital switchboard and ask for an update. It’s an awful time waiting to get sorted but you will get there. Patients are often discussed in a big meeting to decide on the best course of action so it can take time to get an answer.

Big hug 🤗

Also, you may have a chest infection and need the correct antibiotics to shift it. I’d take a sputum sample in to your GP so it can be tested and the appropriate antibiotics given. It’s awful when you’re struggling like you are with phlegm. Steamy showers may help.

Hope you feel better soon.

What are your risk factors for cancer? Smoke? Vape? Alcohol consumption? Family history? Cancer is rare in someone your age but it does happen.

Wait for the results of the fissure biopsy and go from there.

Sorry to hear about your ill health, OP.

All your symptoms are symptoms of Long Covid.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html

More and more studies are showing a dysfunctional immune response post-Covid and the virus is still around and reinfecting people on average every 9 months.

Hope you can get some treatment to improve things.

I was also going to suggest Long Covid @Sunshineguy

Did you take a Covid test at the time you had your 'chest infection'? It sounds quite likely to me that it could have been Covid.

Also you haven't said whether or not you smoke OP?