Hello to whomever reads this... I found this site while researching two topics: vitamins and herbs to aid in nerve regeneration post-op and acute shoulder pain associated with surgery (neck dissection).

I am 38, female and generally in excellent health - aside from having been diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma in late February. I don't smoke, drink only socially and am physically fit. I have always enjoyed a fairly active lifestyle and maintain a healthy diet (sure, I'll have cookies or ice cream now and then - I do have a sweet tooth). My cancer story happened so fast, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it all.

Back in December, a piece of a partial crown I had on a right, rear molar broke off while I was eating and when I bit down on the broken piece, it chipped the tooth next to it. I had the crown replaced - which took a couple of weeks. Between the time the original crown broke and when the new crown was put in, the jagged edge of tooth next to the crown persistently rubbed against the right bottom of my tongue so when my dentist put the new crown in, I asked her to please smooth out the sharp edge as it was irritating my tongue. She quickly obliged and I was scheduled for a cleaning in late February.

The irritation, which looked like nothing more than a tiny red spot on my tongue, persisted so when I went for my cleaning in February, I mentioned it to my dentist in the hopes that she could prescribe something to make it go away. When she asked me: "how long has this thing been hanging around now?" and I responded that I wasn't sure - I knew it was around the time she put in my new crown, she took a look at my records and saw that it was back in December. This must have set off some alarm bells though she seemed very calm but referred me to an oral surgeon to have a biopsy, which I did right away.

Even the oral surgeon seemed as though it was probably nothing, though he said there was a "slight" chance that it could be an oral cancer (I guess he had to provide me with every possibility). The biopsy was on a Thursday and the following Monday, the oral surgeon himself called my cell phone as I was driving home from work and told me that I had Squamous Cell Carcinoma - cancer. I immediately called my husband for emotional support.

From that point on, it was a slew of doctor's appointments, PET/CT scans, bloodwork, etc. all culminating in my surgery on April 11th. My doctors originally anticipated having to remove almost 1/2 of my tongue and some lymph nodes (just in case) as well as flap reconstruction. The surgery was anticipated to be 16 hours minimum. I supposed that I was somehow fortunate because when my surgeon got in, only about 1/4 of my tongue needed to be removed though they still took out 29 lymph nodes (to be safe).

My first post-op follow up was on April 23rd during which my doctors told me that all pathology on my lymph nodes returned clean and I would not need radiation or chemo. I cried from relief during that visit. All-told, my surgery ended up lasting just over 3 hours and my hospital stay - originally forecasted to be 7 - 10 days, turned out to be 4 days in the ICU, after which I was discharged.

I have been obsessively diligent about keeping my neck wound clean and slathered with bacitracin and it appears to be healing well. Most of the sutures have dissolved. The hole in my neck where the drain was is pretty tiny but there is still swelling around the right side just below my jaw. I still have stitches in my tongue, which are driving me insane but at least I can eat solids again. The right side of my tongue now feels like it's burning - a slight burning sensation, which I find annoying.

My biggest issue right now is acute shoulder pain in my right shoulder. I also am very weak in that shoulder - I can only raise it (horizontally from my body) about 25% which I find extremely frustrating as I am right-handed. I also have greatly reduced range of motion when turning my head. I can turn it to the right almost all the way, but only about halfway to the left.

I am just baffled by this - it makes no sense to me. I have no genetic predisposition to any sort of cancer and being a non-smoker - I can only attribute this to my chipped tooth. Before that, I had no problems in my mouth.

Today I went to the supermarket and for the first time, a little girl - about 5 or 6 maybe - was openly gawking at me with an almost frightened look on her face. She was looking right at my scar because otherwise I'm not an altogether scary looking girl. It really rattled me but I tried to play it cool. I've been on short-term disability from work until my docs release me to go back but I'm afraid of this reaction from some of my colleagues. I'm sure I'm just being silly but I feel somehow deffective now.

Anyway - I had intended this first post to be short and to the point but I guess I had more to say than I realized...