I have a lump in my throat.
It started in June or so. I thought it might be a cold, or a
cold sore, or something like tonsillitis (I still have my tonsils).
Almost two months later, I still have a lump in my throat.
The other day, I gave in and went to my doctor. He wasn’t
available, so I saw a nurse-practitioner instead. She was terrific, and tested
me for everything under the sun.
Final (preliminary) diagnosis: it’s not bacterial. It’s just
a lump.
Is it viral? Is it – um – cancerous? I don’t know yet. I
will see a specialist soon. (I’m still tremendously relieved that it wasn’t
something stupid and infectious like streptococcus.)
Maybe it’s the family inheritance: cancer.
Or just a cold sore in the wrong place.
Here’s a story:
Back in 1978, I traveled to the (then) Soviet Union with a
tour group. We started in (then) Leningrad, and then split into two groups: my
group went to the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the other group went to
Siberia. We were to meet in Moscow about two weeks later.
In Moscow, one of my fellow travelers who’d gone to Siberia
– a lively and funny woman – told me this: “A flea bit me on the eyelid while I
was sleeping, and my eye swelled terribly. They took me to the hospital in Novosibirsk,
and very evidently they had no idea what to do with me; I spent days in the
hospital listening to doctors and nurses talking about me in Russian, and I had
no idea what they were saying. Finally they brought in a translator, and I told
him that a flea had bitten me, and he told the doctors, and they were very
relieved. And the translator laughed, and told me: ‘They were very relieved.
They were convinced they were going to have to amputate your eyelid.’”
Remember: even when you have a lump, it could always be
worse. The doctors might amputate your eyelid.
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