It is definitely an "upper" to hear someone with 8 years survival. Like Kelly, I was looking all over the internet and all I saw was words like, "Unfortunately the five-year survival rate for oral cancer is very low especially if it has spread to the lymph nodes." I felt nothing but doomed. I even considered just going to Sweden and New Zealand and any other place I've been wanting to go before I died and forgetting the awful treatment all together. That was until I found this site and saw all the brave peope who encouraged me to go to treatment and I could make it through. Angelia especially helped me because we started at virtually the same time and had a lot of similar issues. We private mailed a lot and we both made it, despite the fear of the dreaded mask and that awful feeding tube. I sure hope I can still write something on here in 8 years.