Stressing out and need an outlet

This is not the right subreddit, but I need an outlet and this is the only place I've ever really posted. There is no reason to read this, but I had a need to write it.

I've occasionally seen posts here where people ask if they should quit smoking in addition to quitting drinking. In response to such questions, I offer up my current situation.

I quit drinking 15 years ago. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I quit smoking about a year and a half later, and found it comparatively easy. Four years later, I was going through a period of very high stress and started smoking again. I justified it to myself because it helped with the stress and it wasn't a drink. I viewed it as temporary, and while I always planned to quit again, I figured I had plenty of time. Now, I may be out of time.

I went to the doctor on Thursday because I had a painful growth on my tongue that I thought might be an infection. It wasn't. To paraphrase what the doctor said: "It's not an infection. I'm very concerned because you are a smoker. You need to see an Ear, Nose an Throat doctor as soon as possible". He didn't mention the possibility of cancer, but by declining to offer up any other possibility, he didn't need to.

I made an ENT appointment, but cannot get into see one until mid January. I won't know what this growth is until then. My wife researched tongue cancer a little bit, and it looks like there is a real possibility that it could be cancer. It might not be, but I need to prepare myself for that possibility.

The reality of my situation is just starting to sink in. Waiting to find out has me stressed out, and I'm worried that waiting a month and a half to get a biopsy is too long to wait if it turns out to be cancer.

I'm not yet worried about my sobriety. I've had some incredibly stressful periods of time during the last 15 years, and I never seriously considered drinking. I hope and expect that this time will be no different. However, I am a little concerned that should the worst case situation come to pass, the urge to escape reality, if even only temporarily, will be great, and I'm not sure how I will deal with that.

If you've gotten sober, but still smoke, please consider quitting that as well. While in most cases, the need to quit drinking is more immediate than the need to quit smoking and should be addressed first and foremost, your smoking addition should be addressed as well. You may not have as much time as you think.