Hello everyone. I'm a 22 year old girl got diagnosed with SCC of the lateral tongue about 10 days ago, and surgery is due in the early new year. I was in the middle of my second to last term of school, which has now been postponed.

I was initially trying to stay positive, for my amazing boyfriend that I live with and my mother who battled (and conquered) breast cancer years back, and it was going well. I stopped googling survival rates and prognosis because they really weren't comforting, and was focusing on just moving forward and waiting out the holidays to be over so the ENT could come back from vacation and I could start the treatments.

However, I've noticed that what I initially thought was the tumor site extends larger than I originally thought - the borders of the ulcer I have currently have possess a hard mass that extends further back, even though the doctor said that the clinical size is 2 cm. I've had this for a long time as well, and it's poorly-differentiated. It also hurts further back now.

Its been a really tough night. I'm losing weight pretty rapidly which worries me, and I'm trying to put it on before surgery. I'm meeting with my surgeon in a couple days to talk about the surgery, but its hitting me somewhat hard right now. I don't know what to do or how to get out of this mind-set until the surgery when we'll find out more.

Any advice on how to think differently? Thank you.