I'M A CHIPMUNK!!!
This might gross some people out but I assure you that it's nothing worrisome despite my earlier worries about it. LOL Anywho, for the last three weeks I kept feeling some weird catchy thing scratch the back of my tongue on the left side of the oto-pharynx. I finally looked in the mirror about two weeks ago and saw a little patch of white just behind the palatoglossal fold. I could only view it if I moved my tongue around to manipulate the area into different positions. With my finger, I attempted to feel it, and it felt like my nail could easily catch on it. I thought perhaps it was a canker sore and left it alone so as not to irritate it further.
One week later I decided the "canker sore" should have gone away so I looked in the mirror again. I still saw the whitish spot but it seemed different somehow. I took a flashlight and really looked and it appeared more like mold or something than a canker sore. With the help of the flashlight this time, I pulled the palatoglossal fold forward a bit so I could see better. As I pulled, the white spot revealed itself to be a somewhat sizable mass, and only a small portion of it had been originally showing itself.
At first it reminded me of pictures of cancer I've seen online, but there was something very odd about this one. Nonetheless I almost had a heart attack as I kept pulling to reveal more and more of it. Then I realized that it was separating from the fold! I pushed down a bit and the mass popped right out onto my tongue. I pushed it forward and pulled it out and saved it. It stunk something horrible (filled the whole room with pungent ickiness), and I figured it was food that somehow got pushed in there long enough to rot. Probably quite a while, actually. And less than five days later the thing has gone from at least dime-sized to the size of a letter on my keyboard. Talk about shrinkage!
Further examination of the fold revealed a hole in the tonsil area. There was a bit more buildup, some of which I also managed to extract, but I continued to worry because I don't have this thing on the other side and I couldn't imagine something like this existing properly where food could get CAUGHT and ROT like that.
What IS that, and where did it come from? I wondered. I was due for a physical anyway and had already called the doctor to set it up because I was slightly worried about the "canker sore" and figured they'd clear up that worry real quick. But I was becoming more and more eager to get this explained to me.
Well, the appointment went fine. The holey thing is nothing to worry about. Not everyone has them, but one of the nurses said her daughter has the same thing and they were told that it's simply a much-larger-than-usual pocket around the tonsils and/or adenoids. I asked if I should clean it. She said no because even if food gets trapped up there and rots it won't hurt anything in there because of where it is. The only time it'll ever become an issue is when it builds up and sticks out like it did the past few weeks, in which case then cleaning might be warranted so I did an okay thing by removing it like I did. They laughed when I told them I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the size of the compacted food that fell out, though. Said it must have been pretty scary for a few seconds there. I said, "Yeah, scary doesn't quite cover it. I thought it was a tumour or something!!"
The PA did look in my mouth to make sure and said "Yep, just an oversized hole." So I'm VERY much relieved. She said tonsils and adenoids are very porous and do indeed have lots of nooks and crannies that can sometimes be that big. Leave it to me to have these somewhat abnormal things, though, huh?
I also asked to be tested for HIV, cholesterol, cbc, hepatitis, syphilis, herpes, and anything else that's out there that she could think of that would also be covered by my insurance. I've not had any lab work since I was a kid and I'd like to know for certain EVERYthing is ok because I do occasionally get fatigued and feel weird and even though it's probably hormones and life and such, I want to make sure it's nothing chemically wrong. So I got paperwork to bring to the lab and then I get to get stuck with a needle. I actually detest needles (especially blood-drawing ones because they stay there so long) but it's the lesser of the two evils - peace of mind over 'no, get that long metal tube aWAY from my veins, thank YOU!'
Funny, though... every time I think I have some problem and go to the doctor's, it's always something weird that few people have but that is fine TO have. Five years ago I had the Meckels Diverticulum that died and it had to be removed (they stole my appendix too, those THIEVFESSS!!!) - a Meckels Diverticulum hits maybe 4% of the American population. It's a little pouch off the small intestine that often has stomach acid in it (mine didn't, which is why it wasn't detected for so long). If it doesn't die you can keep it 'til you do, but mine got upset over something and decided to end its sad and short little life so I guess I go to the grave without it now. Hm. Maybe I was a chipmunk in one life and a cow in the other. Extra mini-stomach so I can eat my cud and a cheek pouch to store my food in. Besides, when I had my wisdom teeth out, I /did/ look like a chipmunk for a few days there. So now I've had at least three "throwback appendages" out - wisdom teeth, appendix, and a meckel's diverticulum. They obviously can't remove a hole. Will they want my sclera next? Or how about my shark teeth (I've got a tooth almost on my palate, double rows of teeth have existed in my family before)??
Oh, zheezh though, knowing my luck I'll go back in two weeks for test results and they'll say, "Well, you're not anaemic, your cholesterol's still too low (and how you do that we don't know) and you don't have any diseases whatsoever that are known to Man. However, we did find these weird little metal chips floating around in your bloodstream. We put one under the microscope and it looked like a miniature robot... then it attacked a white blood cell that was trying to eat up a staphyllococcus germ. The germ tried to escape but the miniature robot took out a miniature hammer and obliterated it before extracting what appeared to be carbon atoms and storing them in little metal cheek pouches. We were so dumbstruck by this that we kept staring for several minutes. That's when we saw it regurgitate the carbon atoms and chew them up and then swallow them. You don't want to know what the droppings looked like the next day. So... is there something you'd like to tell us?"
Uh, no, doctor... just that, well, until recently I would eat, breathe and sleep computers... maybe I inhaled a few babies? I've got 11 adult systems you know, they're bound to mate sometime...
One week later I decided the "canker sore" should have gone away so I looked in the mirror again. I still saw the whitish spot but it seemed different somehow. I took a flashlight and really looked and it appeared more like mold or something than a canker sore. With the help of the flashlight this time, I pulled the palatoglossal fold forward a bit so I could see better. As I pulled, the white spot revealed itself to be a somewhat sizable mass, and only a small portion of it had been originally showing itself.
At first it reminded me of pictures of cancer I've seen online, but there was something very odd about this one. Nonetheless I almost had a heart attack as I kept pulling to reveal more and more of it. Then I realized that it was separating from the fold! I pushed down a bit and the mass popped right out onto my tongue. I pushed it forward and pulled it out and saved it. It stunk something horrible (filled the whole room with pungent ickiness), and I figured it was food that somehow got pushed in there long enough to rot. Probably quite a while, actually. And less than five days later the thing has gone from at least dime-sized to the size of a letter on my keyboard. Talk about shrinkage!
Further examination of the fold revealed a hole in the tonsil area. There was a bit more buildup, some of which I also managed to extract, but I continued to worry because I don't have this thing on the other side and I couldn't imagine something like this existing properly where food could get CAUGHT and ROT like that.
What IS that, and where did it come from? I wondered. I was due for a physical anyway and had already called the doctor to set it up because I was slightly worried about the "canker sore" and figured they'd clear up that worry real quick. But I was becoming more and more eager to get this explained to me.
Well, the appointment went fine. The holey thing is nothing to worry about. Not everyone has them, but one of the nurses said her daughter has the same thing and they were told that it's simply a much-larger-than-usual pocket around the tonsils and/or adenoids. I asked if I should clean it. She said no because even if food gets trapped up there and rots it won't hurt anything in there because of where it is. The only time it'll ever become an issue is when it builds up and sticks out like it did the past few weeks, in which case then cleaning might be warranted so I did an okay thing by removing it like I did. They laughed when I told them I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the size of the compacted food that fell out, though. Said it must have been pretty scary for a few seconds there. I said, "Yeah, scary doesn't quite cover it. I thought it was a tumour or something!!"
The PA did look in my mouth to make sure and said "Yep, just an oversized hole." So I'm VERY much relieved. She said tonsils and adenoids are very porous and do indeed have lots of nooks and crannies that can sometimes be that big. Leave it to me to have these somewhat abnormal things, though, huh?
I also asked to be tested for HIV, cholesterol, cbc, hepatitis, syphilis, herpes, and anything else that's out there that she could think of that would also be covered by my insurance. I've not had any lab work since I was a kid and I'd like to know for certain EVERYthing is ok because I do occasionally get fatigued and feel weird and even though it's probably hormones and life and such, I want to make sure it's nothing chemically wrong. So I got paperwork to bring to the lab and then I get to get stuck with a needle. I actually detest needles (especially blood-drawing ones because they stay there so long) but it's the lesser of the two evils - peace of mind over 'no, get that long metal tube aWAY from my veins, thank YOU!'
Funny, though... every time I think I have some problem and go to the doctor's, it's always something weird that few people have but that is fine TO have. Five years ago I had the Meckels Diverticulum that died and it had to be removed (they stole my appendix too, those THIEVFESSS!!!) - a Meckels Diverticulum hits maybe 4% of the American population. It's a little pouch off the small intestine that often has stomach acid in it (mine didn't, which is why it wasn't detected for so long). If it doesn't die you can keep it 'til you do, but mine got upset over something and decided to end its sad and short little life so I guess I go to the grave without it now. Hm. Maybe I was a chipmunk in one life and a cow in the other. Extra mini-stomach so I can eat my cud and a cheek pouch to store my food in. Besides, when I had my wisdom teeth out, I /did/ look like a chipmunk for a few days there. So now I've had at least three "throwback appendages" out - wisdom teeth, appendix, and a meckel's diverticulum. They obviously can't remove a hole. Will they want my sclera next? Or how about my shark teeth (I've got a tooth almost on my palate, double rows of teeth have existed in my family before)??
Oh, zheezh though, knowing my luck I'll go back in two weeks for test results and they'll say, "Well, you're not anaemic, your cholesterol's still too low (and how you do that we don't know) and you don't have any diseases whatsoever that are known to Man. However, we did find these weird little metal chips floating around in your bloodstream. We put one under the microscope and it looked like a miniature robot... then it attacked a white blood cell that was trying to eat up a staphyllococcus germ. The germ tried to escape but the miniature robot took out a miniature hammer and obliterated it before extracting what appeared to be carbon atoms and storing them in little metal cheek pouches. We were so dumbstruck by this that we kept staring for several minutes. That's when we saw it regurgitate the carbon atoms and chew them up and then swallow them. You don't want to know what the droppings looked like the next day. So... is there something you'd like to tell us?"
Uh, no, doctor... just that, well, until recently I would eat, breathe and sleep computers... maybe I inhaled a few babies? I've got 11 adult systems you know, they're bound to mate sometime...
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