squamous cell carcinoma

Hi, this is my first time that I have ever even looked at a chat room but I'm at my end. My mother was diagnosed with Squamouse Cell Carcinoma on May 16, 2006. We live in a rural community and the clinic referred her to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her primary oncologist has been Dan Lydiatt. On June 1, 2006, was first her 1st appt at UNMC and she meet with Dr. Lydiatt as well as an oral surgeon, had blood work up, ekg, etc., blah blah blah. She had a T-2 lesion on the floor of her mouth. On 06/06/06 (look at that date) she had surgery. They removed the tumor, took part of her jaw bone, removed all lower teeth and all top except 6 of the fron, did a radical bilateral dissection, removed lymph nodes, inserted at trach, placed a flap in the floor of her mouth with a piece from her left for arm together with an arterie for blood flow and finally a graft from her left leg to cover the place on her arm from the flap. She (we) were in the hospital for 8 days, she did absolutely wonderful. She's a fighter and wasn't going to let this beat her. She came home and recovered well. On July 17th she had her 1st chemo treatment along with radiation. I've read about people talk about the "mask", it was very hard for her but she came through it like a champ. She finished 3 chemo treatments and 7 weeks of radiation without pause. One thing to keep in mind that she each day she had 2 1/2 hours one way of driving time for her daily radiation treatments(5 hours a day of driving and 1 hour of treatment). On 9/1/06 my sister from Nashville returned to "celebrate" the end of the treatments. On 9/3/06 we took my mother to the local ER because she was severely dehydrated (she refused to have a tub). They gave her 2 bags of IV and released her. On 9/5/06 I brought her back to the ER for because of dehydration and I insisted that she was admitted. She (we) stayed until 9/10. I have not talked about the severe mouth sores, dry mouth, loss of apetite, the inability to eat, weight loss (38 lbs) or the severe depression, as anyone who reads this or been through it will understand.

She has been hoping for her teeth back for months so she will be able to . On 1/11/07 we meet with the oral surgeon for the implants so that she could get dentures. She began HBO treatments the following Tuesday in preparation of surgery for the implants - she is to have 20 before surgery and 10 after. She is now waiting to have the surgery scheduled, I would expect it to happen in the next few weeks (it is a money issue, she retired 12/31/05 and has no insurance).

I realize I have been going on but I'm getting to my point.

On Friday, March 9th, she had an appt at the clinic in our small town for a sore that she has on her shin of her leg (it is about 1 1/2" inches in diameter). The DR told her he does not believe it is an infection and that it is most likely cancerous. The doctor did a scrap and a biopsy of the lesion. She got a call on 3/12 and they told her that the findings from the scrap have come back and it is "normal skin bacteria". The biopsy results should be back by 3/16/07.

HERE IS MY BIG QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 years ago, my mother went to this clinic because she had a small sore on the same shin which would not heal. The DR examined it and said that it was most likely an infected sore, gave her an antibiotic and said if it didn't go away come back. She never returned for this ailement. I have spoke with an number of people and they also FEEL dumb for going to this clinic for any problems because the DR doesn't know what it is and that the patient is just being a hypocondriac.

I am now concerned that my mother my have had skin squamous cell carcinoma 3 years ago which has gone untreated and then moved to the oral cavity.

Has anyone heard of this happening before?

I'm just really concerned that she will have to go back through treatments.

Thank you for any help you may provide.

Julie

(I have edited this and I know that there are many typographical errors, I apologise but it isn't that important to me.)