Hi Paul, Eric here... welcome, welcome to OCF -- this is a great place to be for what you are going through.

I, too, had stage II tongue cancer. They took it all out with clean margins and told me I, too, was on the border of needing radiation. I pondered putting myself through the harsh treatments, but many, many folks assured me that I needed to be ultra aggressive the first time around, that this isn't something to toy with.

So, I decided to do it. The first few weeks of my six weeks of treatments weren't too bad. I remember strutting a bit and thinking I would be the one person who sailed through radiation treatments unscathed. Haha!!

Of course that all changed around appointment 12 or so. It was rough, but you know what -- looking back, it wasn't that bad!! You'll be surprised at what the human mind and body (with lots of prayer and support) can get through!!!

A few keys of wisdom to pass on should you choose radiation (and I highly recommend that you do):

* Stay on top of your nuitrition and hydration. I let these lax at times, and that caused me some problems, especially toward the end of my treatments. I didn't use a PEG tube and made it OK, but at times I wonder if I should have...

* Don't be afraid of pain medication. I tried to play hero for awhile, boy was that stupid. Make sure you have pain med prescriptions in hand BEFORE you need them. And don't be afraid to ask your docs to increase your dosage if it's not working...

* If you are on pain meds, ask your docs about treating constipation issues. Truly, and I laugh about it now somewhat, this was the worst part of radiation for me. Imagine a grown man whimpering on the bathroom floor. That was me on two occassions. Not pretty but I could have avoided this with better care on the front end...

* Try to stay as active as possible. I actually worked through much of treatment, though my hours went way down toward the end because I needed the rest.

I'm a sports reporter/photographer, and I got credentials to cover the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe -- which was right at about four weeks of treatments for me. It wore me out some, and I'm sure I looked silly drinking my Ensure on the sidelines during halftime, but I wasn't about to let radiation keep me from that!! Set goals for yourself and that will help you stay strong.

As you can see from my signature below, I did get a recurrence, even after taking radiation. Somehow something slipped through, and a lymph node right underneath the radiation field grew a tumor (all my nodes were negative at the time of surgery and radiation). So I had a radical neck dissection last Friday.

I don't say that to scare you but to show you reality. This disease is feisty and needs to be dealt with using "an elephant gun" as my ENT says. Sometimes we need to pull that gun out a couple of times, but you'll help your chances greatly by delivering the big blows early in the process... Hope that makes sense

Feel free to email me anytime if you have questions... Keep in touch -- pulling for you and praying for you...

What part of WV are you from? My parents are WV natives -- Beckley and Oceana in Raleigh and Wyoming Counties... I was born and grew up in NC, but I still feel like I have a deep connection to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

Peace to you,

Eric