That was before I cleared it up.
I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. If something is out of the norm, it’s usually a dooms day scenario. A few years ago I was sitting in a meeting when I rested my head on my hand. My finger felt a hard, strange lump behind my ear and for the rest of the meeting my mind was planning out the quickest way I could get in to see a doctor. However, thankfully upon seeing a doctor, I was informed that the alarming lump was a non-serious swollen lymph node and it might take weeks or months to go back down.
Who knew you had lymph nodes behind your ears???
Anyway, so back to this story. The other day as I was driving in my car, I moved my tongue down to follow the inner contour of my lower jaw (as you do) and noticed a small bump in the soft tissue. I didn’t think too much of it at first because it’s not uncommon to get small canker sores on my tongue, cheek, or I suppose under my tongue. What was odd about this was that it didn’t hurt like those normally do. It just felt like a grain of sand.
I ignored it and thought it would go away.
Today, several days later, I noticed that it was still there, same spot, no change or sign it was improving. I investigated more and it was white, hard, and about the size of a poppy seed. I started to think about how my dentist always does a visual check for oral cancer and checking under the tongue is part of that. Rut roh.
This prompted a quick search on oral cancer and one of the items that came up was Leukoplakia. This is some sort of pre-cancerous situation that can be white (gulp) and hard (double gulp). That must be what it is. I kept searching and learned about all sorts of horrid things that one can have in their mouth. Another possibility is a saliva gland stone. Similar to a kidney stone, but it develops in your salivary tube and blocks any liquid from getting out. It could be that too!
Just as I was working myself up into another level of worry, I decided I needed to call my dentist and make an appointment. But, before doing so, I should poke at it a bit and see just what it does. I got a Q-tip and poked. To my surprise, it moved! Those with a squeamish stomach, might want to stop reading, but it seemed to be just barely attached by an every so thin piece of … something. I kept poking and prodding until I almost instigated my gag reflex. I wasn’t able to get it out with the Q-tip, so I moved on to a more sophisticated implement. Tweezers. It was pretty hard to get a hold of, but I managed to grab and pull. There was a slight twinge, but with that, it was out.
What was it? I don’t know. I probably should have saved it in a jar for safe keeping, but it was really tiny. Now the underside of my tongue is stinging a bit, but I’m not sure if it was from the tweezers, the hand sanitizer I used for an antiseptic, or just my imagination from thinking about it too much. It feels like there is still a bump, but at least the offending white part is gone. What did we do before the joys (or pitfalls) of internet searches?
And just so you are not concerned, I am super conscious about my oral hygiene and floss every day. Okay, maybe every other day.
1 comment:
Tongue action!
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