All,

I've never had cancer before so this is very new for me. I thank you in advance for welcoming me into this forum. I have a complicated history, but quite frankly I was really surprised to find out it was cancer. I'm only 35 years old.

Back at the beginning of December, I woke up with a tooth abcess on my left upper mouth. I was told that I needed to have a root canal. At the meantime, I had a long term problem with my left back molar, where it needed to be pulled and was bothering me by scraping my tongue at the left base. Long story short, I had the root canal and tooth extraction done under general anesthesia. After that, I developed a complication with my tooth extraction and also developed oral thrush from the overuse of antibiotics. I thought that was the reason for the lesion on my tongue getting worse...but apparently that was not the case.

I live in California, but all of my family and friends live in Missouri. The first slight indication I received is that it could be cancer was at my last appointment with the oral surgeon in CA, the day before I left on my trip to visit St. Louis for Christmas. When I was in MO, the lesion on my tongue got progressively worse, so I had a biopsy there. On New Years Eve, whilst I was preparing to throw a huge party, my dentist called and advised me that the biopsy was cancerous.

I am posting here as I have filled in some of my close friends and family, and they have been really supportive, but I don't know what to expect. I'm really afraid and don't fully understand the journey ahead of me. The tongue lesion is about the size of a round nickel. I know that surgery, radiation, and chemo may be involved. I work at a small but very promising start up company in the SF Bay Area. I love my life, have a great husband and a condo, have three kitties, and my job is great. I don't know what to do.

As far as what caused it, I'm really not certain. I do have a history of drinking and smoking, but am still relatively young. I also have HPV which has caused cervix cancer scares in the past. I found an awesome E-Cig in MO called "Ovale" so I've been using that diligently, but it's tough.

I'm scheduled to see an ENT with Kaiser (an HMO in CA) this Friday. I hope they do have a sense of urgency. I don't want to die, but I can't afford care at Standford which is what my oral surgeon recommended.

I thought I would introduce myself and read up on other stories. It's been so hard to explain to my family, friends, and management at work. So, I just want to make some new friends and connect with others that are experiencing this as well.

Thanks so much for your time in reading this - if you got this far! :-)

Gina