Welcome to OCF!

There are not many members who have the same illness as you so you may not get many replies besides some welcoming posts. There are a few members who have had a similar diagnosis. I did a quick search for PLGA and your thread is only the third one since 2010. Oral cancer can be a rare and unheard of disease but PLGA is even more of a rarity. The last stats I remember were 43,000 in the US are diagnosed with OC every year.

I understand about your reluctance to do radiation if its not necessary. This is something you, together with your medical team will need to decide upon. Radiation does not always cause trismus or tooth loss. There are many factors which go into developing those problems. If patients strictly adhere to using their flouride trays, brushing after every meal, flossing and overall top notch dental care they often do not suffer from very many issues with their teeth. Its a very individualized issue with much depending on the pretreatment condition of the patients teeth and overall health, age, etc. But of course anything can happen and many do develop problems even many years down the road.

My opinion differs from yours "I cannot justify going through what so many of you have gone through to add a few years to my life ~ years that IMO would hardly be worth living with all the radiation side effects." You are entitled to your opinion, just as everyone is. But I feel I must weigh in. I would much rather still be alive and deal with those after effects than not be here to share so many things with my family and friends. I have daily struggles but I am alive and thats what is most important. My family needs me as do the hundreds of oral cancer patients that contact me daily for info and advice. To me, the after effects were well worth prolonging my life for almost 5 years since my last round of OC. Any day I am about to become a grandmother for the first time. It would have been so difficult for my daughter to go thru her pregnancy without her mother. Im VERY happy to be alive even if it means Im not 100%.

Best wishes with your continued recovery from surgery.