Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma Palate Low Grade - Help

gpmav said:

Dear friends, just to let

Dear friends, 

just to let you know that I had my annual check yesterday and the result is NED, the best words I heard in the last 12 months!! I can't say it's completely over and i will be scared at the next check but today it' s time to celebrate life! thanks to all of you For the great help!!!!

There isn't one person here who doesn't love to hear about our bus mates getting a NED....CONGRATS on it! 

p

Laurenny said:

I had MEC
Hi all, I too had low grade MEC. I had surgery on April 13th. I now have a hole in the roof of my mouth. I wear an obterator to eat, drink, and speak. I found out I had cancer when I was 6months pregnant. My doctor advised me to wait to have surgery until I delivered my baby since it was slow growing. Ugh, it was so hard going through pregnancy with my first child at the age of 29, knowing I had cancer inside me. Doctor told me that I would not need radiation or chemo. However, I'm paranoid. I have no idea how long this cancer was growing for.

I actually had the lump biopsid in 2010 when I first felt it on my palate. The biopsy came back benign. So I went on with life until dec of 2011, that's basically 2 years later, when I had the lump biopsid again since I was pregnant. This time the biopsy came back positive for cancer. My doctor told me that if it is cancer now, it was cancer back in 2010. I was so upset. I couldn't believe what was happening. It's sad, because now everytime i go to doctors, I can't trust them or I want more tests and 2nd, 3rd opinions. I wish I could have taken care of the cancer back in 2010, when I wasn't pregnant. But it is what it is. I go on with life now. I'm so in love with my baby boy who will be 6months tomorrow. He is my miracle baby. Without him, who knows when I would have went back to the doctors to get the lump checked.

When I initially found out the lump was benign back in 2010, that dentist wasn't alarmed and wasn't telling me to get it removed right away so I didn't worry about it. First time I got a cavity was when I was 18years old and I wasn't looking forward to have any work done in my mouth. But like I said, the dentist didn't say this has to be removed ASAP or seem alarmed by it, so I wasn't. Now I know never to let a lump go too long without having it checked out and make sure to get it removed.

I am almost 6 months post operation. How are all of you survivors coping daily with your defects? I could have had an arm flap to cover the hole up in my mouth but I decided against it because the scar was too much for me and plus I wouldn't have been able to care for my infant properly. The plastic surgeon told me that I could get it done later on if I wanted to. I'm looking in a cheek graf but my hole is just about over the limit to how much tissue they can cover it. So the Graf may or may not work for me. Only way to tell is if I have it done and see if the tissue covers the hole completely. I wish you all much love, light, happiness. We are cancer survivors!

Hi Laurenny

Have you had your fistula repaired? I too have a fistula as a result of mucoepidermoid carcinoma. I was diagnosed in 2007. I had surgery January 2008. Following the surgery the fistula developed. I have had two repair attempts so for with local flaps from my palate. In just over two weeks I will be having a FAMM flap surgery done using my cheek.  I'm a little nervous but my surgeon is really good and very confident.