My experience taught me all this. I had what I thought was a budding ear infection last June 15th. For a couple months before, I woke up at night 1-2xs / week with a tickle that caused small coughing fits. Unusual for me but it did not happen often and since I have a lot of allergies, I attributed it to post-nasal drip caused by the warmer weather bringing allergens. But the moderate 2x/day fizzling Pain sensation and mild pressure immediately before the center of my ear was not going away. In June I also noticed an irritation at the side of my tongue and intermittently the hearing in that ear sounded like I had water in it. Hearing was notably but slightly diminished . By mid June I went to urgent care and the doctor said the ear was not infected and was clear. Knowing I could poke the tongue irritation and produce discomfort in the same spot before my ear, I asked this doctor if it could be related to the irritation on my tongue and she would not examine it..saying I needed to see an ENT. [NOTE: in hindsight, this MD should have connected the unexplained symptoms with the lesion because oral-pharyngeal cancers refer discomfort/pain outside if the more obvious throat symptoms..but also dependent on the location of the lesion.]

I contacted my primary care doctor and the medical assistant said to go directly to their ENT. (I’m the meantime, I saw my dentist who said, to be safe, I should see the oral surgeon). I got in the next week at the ENT’s office for a thorough examination. The ENT look at the irritation which was now a bump and said ‘I’ve see cancer regularly and that is not cancer”. Knowing that some cancers can be very tricky to diagnose w/o biopsy, I kept my appt with the oral surgeon. Knowing that this was now a very suspicious lesion and how quickly oral-esophageal cancers can increase in stage (1-4), I made two appts at two oral surgeons because this was challenging to get a timely biopsy as general oral surgeons could take up to 6 weeks to see and subsequent biopsy could run into the same challenges in scheduling. On top of that it would be a 1 week minimum turn around time for pathology reporting.). I got in on cancellations (and begging). The first oral surgeon said it must be biopsies and scheduled it. The second oral surgeon, whom I saw 5 days later, said it must be biopsied and wanted to do it immediately in the office (even though the MD was running 1.5 hrs late). The path report came back a week later positive for squamous cell carcinoma. It had been 6 weeks since noticing an issue with my ear.

Pursuit of an onco ENT surgeon took 2 – 3 weeks more to schedule…there were no cancelations. The first could only schedule surgery 3 weeks out and the second MD, although seeing him later, could schedule 12 days sooner than the first…so I went with him since skill level & experience was the same.

An added symptom to the above scenario was that I was steadily losing weight…a total of about 10 lbs…which were like my last 10 lbs I could NEVER lose. I was told it was stress. But had they asked me, I would have said I have always gained weight when stressed.

From noticing the lesion to having it out, it took 10 weeks…and that is earlier because I pushed. (Keep in mind my dentist was doing work in my mouth for two months before I noticed ear symptoms & while my sleep was disturbed 1-2xs / week).

IMHO, ENT cancers have a very small window of remaining early stage cancers. The treatment becomes more challenging in stage 2 and above. The treatments are difficult to deal with as it involves taking lymph nodes in a narrow area of nerves & blood vessels. Accompanying surgery, many times, is radiation which affects, usually, swallowing and other oral functions for a prolonged time or permanently.
So if these cancers can be caught earlier and in stage 1, it is a lot easier to deal with (keep in mind my surgery recovery was VERY challenging and I am still dealing with some enunciation issues that, I am told, will remain noticeable when I begin to tire at the end of day. I had a 1.6 cm stage one lesion that came VERY close to becoming stage II. Because if the challenge to the patient of taking lymph nodes and possible disfigurement and if something does grow in the nodes it will be treated the same, high surveillance is being employed. Survival rates for stage 1-2 at 5 years is 80-60%. So anyone reading this can begin to understand how critical it is to be knowledgeable about symptoms in the head and neck area. Do not go anymore than two weeks with symptoms and be aware that even with MDs who should know better, ENT cancer symptoms are overlooked or not aggressively pursued to avoid lost time to diagnosis.

In hindsight I have noticed multiple dentists have not done proper oral cancer screenings. This is the doctor to most like find something that will be pursued. Oral health is very much connected to the health in the rest of the body. So PKEASE Google oral cancer screening in YouTube and be aware of what should be done at every checkup. It you din’t See a dentist (you should) then remind another doctor that you din’t and ask them to do it. Also, do as much as you can yourself, screening wise, as you will most likely find it yourself if you are well versed in health.

Lastly, there is no use in fearing this. It is something that, if there, will only get worse if delayed. Denial is only denies the person of early diagnosis.

Hello, unfortunately, we’re unable to provide specific medical advice, so it’s best to contact your doctor. Thanks for reaching out and feel better soon!