<human>: 21 year old male living in Washington State. I've had a sore throat for nearly a year now, since last April. I've smoked cigarettes since I was 17, about 3 cigarettes a day on average. I quit when I first got the sore throat thinking it was just another cold and would be a good opportunity. Stayed quit until a month or two ago but quitting again because the pain flared up bad this past week, everyone's sick with sore throats and whatnot so I'm not too worried. 

So basically it all started last April. I got the sore throat, two weeks later I go to my doctor and tests me for strep: negative. Wait it out for couple more weeks and notice a new pain but in the neck, specifically on the right side and if I bury my finger into my neck I can actually feel the small rice-sized knot that is very painful to the touch. Tell my doctor and he orders a CT scan and they find nothing, left with a $2,000 bill for nothing. Pain continues for a few months, small pain rice comes and goes and moves around to the left side every once in a while. 5 months or so of sore throat I see the doctor AGAIN and he sends me to an ENT specialist and he sticks a camera up my nose and down my throat - says it's red and irritated but no tumor. Tell him I sometimes get heart burn and tells me to take some over the counter stuff and come back in a month. Get $200 bill from them and tell them to cancel my next appointment, ruining me financially. So, here I am today nearly one year of the same sore throat. Anything in the medical books about this? I feel like a year of untreated cancer I would have noticed more severe symptoms so I can rule that out right?

Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?
<bot>: Sore throat for almost a year, had CT scan and a camera down my throat and only see redness. Mild heartburn sometimes but nothing too severe.