Hi all. I�ve been watching this forum since october, but no courage to join. Now I�m here as I see that you are so confident and happy. I feel a slap on my face.

I was in the best periods of my life, no big problems at all, perfect boyfriend, job, family... and then something on my tongue appeared. Went to ER, they tought it was fungus. But it was not. Went to a dentist that sayd "ouch, this does not look good". He recommend a Head and Neck Doctor. Went and he scheduled a biopsy for the next day. Did it and was diagnosed at light displasia.

He said it looked like carcinoma. I didn�t like him because he as not avaiable to answer my 29387432 questions at that time, treating me like a number. I run for more 2 docs. Both of them recommended "the doctor" in another city. Went there... BTW, this doctor is the main expert in Brazil, as people say (I�d like to talk more about him, his threating the ex-president of Brazil that�s being threated of larynx cancer right now).

I entered the sugery without knowing if is was displasya, carcinoma in situ or carcinoma.

And it was carcinoma. 0.7 X 0,5 X 0,63 centimeters (depth). I woke up after surgery with a crazy shaped tongue (no talking for 15 days since they did primary closure and i had stiches) and a Nose tube (NIGHTMARE FOR ME!) that i was supposed to spent 15 days but spent only one week after complaining and promising the doctor that I would not eat anything, just drink.

The depth of tummor was found 7 days after surgery and they decided I�d do that again. Another elective neck dissection is recommended for tummors with more than 0.3.

The tongue surgery was made December 07, 2011. The second (parcial neck dissection) was made December 21, 2011. My nodes were all clean. The doctor asked for HPV exam also.

So, my situation: T1N0M0, Well diferentiated, No perineural invasion, no salivary glands involvement, all nodes clean. My speech is strange but I�m eating anything without problems.

The doctor says that recurrence chance is small. Less than 15%, 10%. He does not recomend radiation because he said "it�s the best prognosis we could have".

So, after all this words I still freak out about cancer issue. I know there is worse cases, but my worries is that I din�t see much T1N0M0 talking about their diseases. I wanna hear this people telling me, "Hi, I was like u, and I�m 30 years without recurrence, don�t worry". But these people does not show up in forums.

Hey Brian Hill, hope u keep this forum active until 2042 then I can come back here and help this guys!

So, to end this post, I�d like to know people that had been into something like this with primmary closure.

December, 2011 - T1N0M0 SSC Oral Tongue sugery (Dec 07, 2011). Partial glossectomy, primary closure. Selective Neck dissection, all 57 nodes free. 29 at diagnosis, no risk factors at all. No smoking, drinking and HPV negative. Can you explain? I can't.