Please help me get some sleep tonight

I've been having a tough time going to sleep tonight because I'm unfortunately being plagued by a mysterious symptom of my tongue really hurting? After some Google searches (bad idea), I'm now afraid to fall asleep because I'm picturing my tongue swelling and blocking my airway and all of the awful events that would transpire with that occurring. This just happened really suddenly and I can't be rational when thinking about why.

To be clear: it is not burning at all, just feels sore and painful in the very back on the sides that connect with the soft pallet. It's on both sides, and each side hurts the same amount. This has never happened before and I feel pain when I swallow, move it, talk, etc.

For some context leading up to this: I have been sick for about 2 and a half weeks. Nothing too serious, no fever. Maybe some chills some night but that could have just been my heater malfunctioning? I'm not too sure. My main symptoms have been a cough producing little to no mucus, postnasal drip, sore throat only in the morning that has significantly lessened in the past 3 days or so.

I went to my friend's house and his cat offset a whole lot of sneezing and coughing. I had a beer over there. My tongue started hurting when I reached into my throat to pull out a cat hair and in doing so, found small, painful bumps at the back of my throat. I then began gently jabbing in there and seeing if my tonsils were swollen. They started hurting after some intense coughing and sneezing fits and the pain was very gradual yet insidious. It's also worth nothing that my tonsils are a normal tonsil color, but a friend told me they're a tad red as if they look irritated a bit.

Please help me so I can sleep, I'm worrying myself sick trying to figure out if this is a sign of something very serious and I can't sleep!

Hi SfM.,

Sounds like allergies to me as well...

How did you sleep? Are you feeling better today? I hope so. Let us know okay?

Peace and wellness,

S.C.

Yes Larry, it does seem there's a sudden onslaught of "back of tongue taste bud discoverers" happening...

I think because the back of the tongue looks so unlike the front of the tongue (which is normal), it's easy to think there's something wrong because the appearance is inconsistent.

The more one "pokes" at them, like anything else, you're not only causing irritation, but you're opening yourself up for infection, especially in the mouth!

Chances are if you leave 'em be and stop picking at them, things will calm down.  If it IS an allergy of sorts, if it were me, I'd try Benadryl (if I could take it), and if the symptoms continued, see your PCP or Dentist and have them check it out for your own peace of mind.

M.

Also it's worth noting I wasn't so concerned with my little back of the throat bumps so much as the sides of y tongue hurting. A very weird and entirely new sensation for me which of course sends my mind spiraling