Surgery

CivilMatt said:

for me it was

Tonita,

I had a jugular vein neck dissection to remove one cancerous lymph node and a base of tongue surgery to remove a quarter size ulcerated cancer.

It was outpatient same day surgery and I had very little pain or discomfort.

One month later I started radiation and Erbitux.

Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, you might as well wait to hear what they have to say, no need to over worry.

Good luck,

Matt

My cancer was not of the tongue but of the jaw. I am sure others will chime in with some advice. Good luck

Tonita said:

The biopsy came back positive

The biopsy came back positive so he's scheduled surgery for the 10th of March.  Scans were clear.  This will be inpatient surgery, 1 - 5 days in the hospital.  Removal of one or two lymph nodes for testing.

I guess it was pretty much what I expected to hear, but I'm relieved that the scans were clean. 

On to the next hurdle!

Sounds similar to my husband's case. Tumor on the tongue and clear scans...1 night in the hospital for surgery. His doc took out 26 nodes though to check. Anyway, clear scans is great news. Wishing you luck with your surgery  and keeping you in my thoughts.

Tonita said:

Swopoe, did you know how many

Swopoe, did you know how many lymph nodes they were going to take out before the surgery?  And did they just just suture the tongue or did he have to have reconstruction?

 

Better call the surgeons office and obtain more information.  Mine was base of tongue tumor 2cm and it was removed by trans oral robotic surgery. No sutures, but it was a very painful healing process for me, kind of like having the tonsils out only worse. Don't know if the Laser procedure for base of tongue removal would have been less painful or not.  Magic mouthwash will be your new best friend.  I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks.   Depending on the size, location and getting to clear margins, that may determine what he will have to do to the tongue.  I had one positive lymph node on the carotid body area and my surgeon took nodes (22) from level 2,3,4 of the neck.  Guess he was being thorough.  My spinal accessory nerve was "disturbed" during the neck dissection and that took over 6 months to heal, but in your case if there is no positive node found during the scan, perhaps the amount of nodes removed will be minimal and they won't have to "disturb" the nerve.  Everyone's cancer is unique and surgeons are as well. Be sure they test your tumor tissue for the HPV virus. Wishing you the best, and know you will get through it well.

PJ

CivilMatt said:

another step

Tonita,

Clean scans is great news.  The less cancer the better!

Matt