Why do they want to do a biopsy?

Posted By Michelle on August 28, 1998 at 17:33:07:







I have had a problem with my throat for over a year now. It started out as a thick red patch on the right tonsil. It started after a real bad head cold. I have had several throat cultures and they have all been negative. I went to an ENT and he diagnosed it as GERD and treated it with Prilosec. It went away. It came back again a few weeks later and he thought it was from post nasal drip due to an allergy. He treated it with Claritin. It cleared up somewhat. A few weeks later it came back and I have lived with it for several months now. Occasionally the patch will be on my other side as well, but that usually only happens when my post nasal drip is severe and as soon as I clear up the post nasal drip, it goes away but remains on the right side. Yesterday it swelled up and it never has swelled before so I went to see him today and he wants me to have a tonsillectomy on Wednesday and due a biopsy. He said he rarely does biopsies when he performs tonsillectomies. I asked him why on me than, do you think I have cancer? He said he didn't want to alarm me unneccessarily and didn't give me an answer. My question, why does he want this biopsy? Does this sound like a form of throat cancer? I am a healthy 30 year old female and I'm quite stresssed out about this now. Should I get a second opinion? I really don't want to lose my tonsils. Could this be from post nasal drip or GERD? He did a sinus x-ray and it was clear but I have a lot of drainage today from my ragweed allergy. Thank you for your time:)