Red irritated front portion of tongue and white back half.

My tongue has had a white coating in the back and red 'goosebump-like' shape in the front. At first I has a couple of bloated in my mouth with this so I went to the dr. He put me on niostatin and thought it was hand foot and mouth disease. Now 7 weeks later it's still here. I went again, he's not sure what it is now, but gave me a heavy duty steroid prescription paste to apply to the red area. Any ideas of what it can be. He seemed concerned it was cancer because my lymph glands were animism.

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

Any other symptoms such as pain, burning sensation, etc?  Does the red/white spots change locations?  Can you wipe off the white patches?  Whats going on with your lymph nodes?  If it is possibly cancer, you may need to see an oral surgeon to get it biopsied.