Throat Lumps and Severe Pain

[Sharron66]

My daughter has been experiencing lumps in her throat that have not gone after 3 months. It started with 1 lump that grew very slowly and begun to show signs of infection so GP prescribed antibiotics but they did not work and her infection markers are normal indicating there is no infection in her throat.

Now, almost 3 months later, she has 2 lumps, the first one having 3 spots on it and having almost tripled in size and the second one growing even faster than the first. She doesn’t have tonsils.

She has also experienced throat pain, hoarse voice, dizziness, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss and I am getting extremely worried as the GPs we have seen have not seemed to do anything other than prescribe 3 rounds of antibiotics which have not worked.

Any suggestions on what they may be or ideas on who to turn to for help?

Could it be strep throat? You need a particular type of anti biotic for strep.

they have swabbed for strep and it is not that and thank goodness for that as she is allergic to penicillin!

Could it be tonsil tissue growing back?
If the GP can't provide answers, I'd be asking for an urgent referral to ENT given their pain and discomfort

I appreciate it’s not your original question but just to reassure you my DD is allergic to penicillin too and has been treated successfully for strep using other antibiotics several times.
This to me looks like either tonsil tissue growing back (when did she have them removed?) or an abcess - if I were you I’d be going back to the Gp and asking for an ENT referral for the reasons @Tinybirdie mentions above. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

they have given us a referral to ENT but said it could take up to a year and have told us nothing we can do for her pain.

that was what i thought but the doctor seems to have paid no attention to me saying it!

I’m not normally one to advocate a&e but as your title says severe pain I’d be inclined to take her to one that has a children’s department and say she’s in severe pain, antibiotics doing nothing, she’s not eating as a result and losing weight (all mentioned above) and they can bleep ENT to come
and look.

failing that - dentists
can refer to ENT too so if you don’t like the a&e plan I’d consider taking her to children’s dentist and getting their thoughts?

we have dentist appointment in just over a week. We’re hoping they’re going to give us some insight on what to do. we went to a and e because she had a severe allergic reaction to her antibiotics for her throat and they were very concerned by her throat but it was extremely busy and they could only deal with the reason she was there (the allergy). May take her back as the lumps seem to be getting worse and her new pills are not helping at all. The lumps are painless, it’s the swelling in her throat due to it that’s painful for her which is making me even more concerned - shouldn’t they have tested her for cancer or tumours by now?

she had her tonsils removed 4 years ago.