Question: I am a female age 41. I started getting sick a little over 3 weeks ago. It started with a very bad sore throat and fever between 100 - 101. Went to urgent care and rapid strep test was negative, however, due to my symptoms, they started me on strep treatment. Fever went away next day but developed cold symptoms with the sore throat. After 2 weeks of this (starting to feel better then worse again next day), I went to my regular doctor. Upon exam he indicated that I may need a follow up antibiotic with a round of steroids as my throat was still pretty swollen. During this treatment, my symptoms very slowly improved, however, still some soreness in my throat only it seemed to be on one side. A few days ago, I looked in the mirror and pulled my tongue flat with my finger. On the side that has still had irritation there is a very noticeable lump. When I reach my finger back, I can feel it - it feels kind of like a solid mass and it runs down into the throat partially. It seems like it is maybe a little smaller than my finger tip. From the part I can see, it is pink. It has caused some anxiety! I went back to primary care dr yesterday and she agreed that there was a considerable lump. It is not on the side of my tongue, but directly on top but almost to my throat. She ran blood work and my cell counts were ok. She also tested me for thrush, it came back negative but she went ahead and prescribed me the mouth rinse just in case it was a false negative. I am a light smoker and I drink wine a lot of evenings but I also workout a lot and try and eat somewhat healthy. They are referring me to an ENT but don't have an apt yet and this is causing some anxiety. I have noticed that I have had more acid reflux the past few months and couldn't tell if this was adding to my sore throat so over the last week I have been taking prilosec. I also have had my tonsils removed as a child.

Well, some good news too is that I do not have any swelling in my neck lymph nodes and my symptoms have improved overall. If I didn't know about this one cyst-like spot, I would have thought I was pretty close to recovery after the 3 week illness. It seems like my throat had gone through a lot of trauma (so to speak) over the past month with the illness so I guess it's probably a good chance that I ended up with some other type of abscess or infection from illness & antibiotic use. Thank you for the information as it has put my mind at ease some. I will hopefully be able to get an apt with the ENT sometime next week and get better clarification after they are able to run more tests. Crossing fingers that it goes away in a few days on its own! Thanks again!