Hi, I was diagnosed in February of this year with cancer of the tongue. I had a cold sore which I treated, it went away but another came back. I also had a hard white ridge on the edie of my tongue, but as I always bit my tongue I blamed this hard ridge on this. I eventually went to my doctor who immediately referred me to the Dental hospital. They did a biopsy on my tongue and a week later told me it was cancer. I was given two options, one do nothing and I had 6 to 12 months, two -have surgery which would remove a part of the tongue, which they would rebuild using a piece from my arm, and I would feed myself using a pet tube. I chose surgery, however when they went to operate they found the tumour to be far bigger than they anticipated and they did not proceed with the surgery as it would have meant taking most of the tongue leaving me without the ability to talk or eat for the rest of my life. I woke up in ICU knowing something was wrong,and the surgeon was there to explain things. After more discussions i opted for chemo 5 sessions, and radiotherapy - 35 sessions. This had the effect of reducing the tumour.

I eventually had surgery in November, and got our of hospital on 20th December. The theatre procedure was R hemiglossectomy, R modified radical neck dissection, L anterolateral thigh flap.

I am doing ok, unfortunately I have swelling to the right side of my face, as they removed three of the five nodes on that side of my neck. I feed overnight through the peg, and I have some drinks during the day so I get the required amount of calories each day.They didn't touch the left side. I have some swallow and I can talk, its a bit garbled, but my family can understand me.
Can anybody give me some advice as to how to get the swelling down? I found some massage techniques on the net but I have yet to try them.

My family are having Christmas dinner right now and I can't bring myself to join them, I loved food so much, and still do.
I don't know how to add my signature, all I know is I had squamous cell cancer. My surgeon is confident he got all the cancer.

Adrienne

Biopsy tongue 3/1/12 (49 yrs)
Cancer 1/2/12
PET CT 6 cm lesion 16/2/12
Lge lesion, no surgery 9/3/12
Rig 15/3/12
5 Chemo 35 Radio
PET CT good response 2/10/12
Biopsy 18/10/12
MRI Lesion reduced 15/11/12
Trache, R hemiglossectomy R mod radical neck dissection, L anterolateral thigh flap 16/11/12