Hello all. My name is Warren, and as of today, I am a cancer patient I'm 35, don't smoke/use tobacco, and don't drink.

Last week, I had my right lingual tonsil removed due to a cyst that has been bothering me. I've actually been having on and off pain in that area for about 4-5 years. 2 months ago, I went into my ENT saying the discomfort was pretty persistent on almost all swallows, not just on/off. I was scoped, and they found a cyst. I was thrilled that they finally found the cause. They said that it didn't look cancerous, but as standard operating procedure, they performed a biopsy, and sent it off to the lab.

Today I went in for my followup, and he gave me the bad news. His initial diagnosis is that I have SCC, base of tongue, T1N0M0, stage 1. HPV test not back yet. How quickly life changes. Just a few hours ago, I had no idea what any of these terms meant. He's sent the paperwork off to 2 different oncologists. I'll schedule my first appointments with them after the long weekend.

I'm frightened after reading some stories, and so is my wife. We have a child that is just 8 weeks old. I found out about the cyst the same week that he was born. I'm happy to have found this forum though. I'm sure I'll be leaning on it for support.

Warren