April 22, 2021 at Urgent Care

On April 22, 2021 I had a sore throat, it had been bothering me for a couple of weeks but it had gotten bad enough that I went to the local urgent care.

After a ridiculously long wait, even though I had an “appointment,” I met with a doctor who determined that I had a peritonsillar abscess which is a serious, pus-filled pocket that develops in the soft tissues next to one of the tonsils, usually as a complication of severe or untreated tonsillitis. I was given an antibiotic and a steroid.

The antibiotics and steroids made me feel better, but the lump did not go away.

May 1, 2021 at Emergency Room

I woke up in the middle of the night with intense chest and abdominal pain, I tried to wait it out but we went to the emergency room. X-ray’s found nothing.

The doctor reported “Lymph nodes: No enlarged lymph nodes. "

At the time I was 6 foot tall and weighed 231 pounds and had been struggling with my weight for a long time.

I was prescribed sucralfate to help protect my stomach.

May 7, 2021 at Family Practitioner

I hadn’t had a GP or Family Practitioner in a long time, like 20 years, but I had scheduled appointment with one a few months before all of this started. I wanted to talk about my weight, GERD, and have a physical.

When the nurse came out to call me in for my appointment she watched me closely then while taking me to a room she told me that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and was diabetic. This is all in the hallway without her ever being closer than 6 feet. After the bloodwork came back, she was right about all three.

The doctor looked at my throat and said I needed to get a CT scan ASAP.

May 17, 2021 CT Scan

The process went well, I learned that scans like this put me to sleep.

Findings: highly suspicious for right oropharyngeal primary with right neck metastatic adenopathy. Recommend ENT and oncologic evaluation as well as biopsy for definitive diagnosis.

Getting me into see an ENT for a biopsy was a production as the ENTs in my network were not available. We were able to get an exception from my insurance and I went to someone outside of my network.

May 20, 2021 Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT)

The office was on the second floor of a shabby strip mall, but the office was very nice and homey, it helped me feel comfortable. The doctor and a student performed the biopsy and spent a lot of time explaining things to me.

Their diagnosis was ICD-10: C77.0: Secondary and unspecified malignant neoplasm of lymph nodes of head, face and neck.

My next visit was with the Oncologist that saved my life.