new here

Hi everyone,

  I am new here and am so grateful to have found this forum with so many wonderful people. I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue on March 16th of this year. Towards the end of January I found a spot on my tongue that I thought was a canker sore.  After giving it a couple of weeks and it not going away I made a appointment with my dentist. He looked at it and said he thought I had bit my tongue and that's all it was, but I was skeptical because I didn't recall doing it and the fact that it wasn't going away. This was the beginning of February and all he wanted was me to rinse with warm salt water and come back in 2 weeks. I still had a nagging feeling this was something more so I made a appointment with a different dentist (he had been in practice 33 years) and saw him. he agreed with my dentist and took a pic of it and also wanted me to come back in 2 weeks. By now it was towards the end of Feb. and still no better and quite painful. I told my husband I know in my gut it's something more so I made a appointment with a oral surgeon. Was not able to see him till March 10th and after examining me he did a biopsy right then that day. Had my follow up consultation on March 16 when I found out it was cancer. Needless to say I was devastated, and couldn't understand how this could have happened....me who has never smoked a day in her life, doesn't drink, or use tobacco products I kept telling myself.

    I had been diagnosed with melanoma in 1985 when I was pregnant with my first child and ended up having surgery after he was born. God blessed me though in the fact it hadn't spread from that spot and I didn't have to have any further treatments except regular check-ups for the first 5 years. Now here I was with another cancer after all this time. So April was spent with appointments, CT scan, bloodwork, PET scan , etc. Scared to death about how much time had went by and the month I wasted seeing 2 different dentists. My PET scan had shown 1 node involved but nothing anywhere else besides the tongue. I had surgery May 3rd which consisted of renoving the tumor from my tongue and a neck dissection which removed 34 lymph nodes. Ny surgeon said he got all the cancer from my tongue with very clear margins and the 1 lymph node in my neck was still encapsulated and had not ruptured or spread and he as able to remove it intact. The other 33 nodes all tested negative. I had the drain in my neck but was released from the hospital the very next morning and had a follow up 5 days later and the drain was removed then. My surgeon felt very confident he had gotten it all and didn't feel I would need radiation or chemo but he referred me to a radiation oncologist. I saw him the beginning of June and had quite a lengthy appointment where he went over everything with my husband and myself.

  His opinion was he did not think I needed radiation or chemo after reading my pathology report and all the info from my surgery. He explained that he felt that would be more detrimental to me than beneficial and would alter my quality of life. I had prepared myself for either one of those or possibly both after reading everything I could get my hands on and all the different people's stories that are dealing with this disease. He just kept saying you have a excellent surgeon and I feel 100% condident in everything he has done looking at all your results. He said I had clear very large margins and no sign of anything else. I just had my 3 month follow up last Friday and my surgeon said I am doing excellent. He said he agreed with the radiation oncologist but hadn't wanted to speak for him and wanted his opinion. I feel great and the swelling in my neck has almost all gone away, my incision line is looking better and less red, and my speech is a little mushy at times but not too bad. I am eating normally (probably way too much lol) and i went back to work 6 days after my surgery so I feel Ihave nothing to complain about. However I keep second guessing the 2 doctor's decisions for no rads or chemo, especially after reading so many different stories on here. Does anyone know is it common to have surgery alone and nothing more? Any info anyone can tell me would be greatly appreciated and everyone here will be very much in my thoughts and prayers.

   Ellie