Hi All,
I was diagnosed in early 2014 with microscopic tongue cancer. The strange part is that I was complaining about tongue pain since 2004. I had my first biopsy in 2004 and it came back as irritated skin. I was told to stay away from mints. The pain continued and I went to several oral surgeons who would monitor it and provided steroids for the pain. I was told that because I was not a smoker I had nothing to worry about and that it was viral and I needed to get use to the pain.

Finally, in 2014 I was pointed in the right direction. Thanks to the help of my husband and his dentist. I had several partial glossectomys on my tongue, external radiation and brachytherapy, all in 2014. Speech is very important to me because I am a elementary school teacher. I have just finally gained my confidence back and my speech is probably about at 90% what it use to be.

Every month I go for my month checkup and this month my doctor felt something different. He took a biopsy and it came back positive for cancer and it's also in the nerve, again.

I'm being told I need to take a more aggressive approach (which I thought brachytherapy was aggressive enough) and remove more of my tongue. This means I would need reconstruction. My priority is to get healthy and remove the cancer but I also want to be able to go back to work. Also, I may need more radiation with chemo this time around.

I'm trying to find other people who have had tongue reconstruction and get an idea of what to expect. How long will it take my speech to come back? Will I be able to speak? Go back to work? Has anyone had cancer in their nerves on their tongue? What if i go through this dramatic surgery and it comes back?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.