I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of tongue 14 years ago. It all started with a small white lesion on the left side of my tongue that never healed. I didn't pay attention for another 8 month until I went to see a local ENT doctor. He took biopsy right away and called me few days later and told me it was SCC stage 1 well differentiated. He suggested me to go to see radiation oncologist although he felt the surgery was the best way to treat what I had. When I went to see the radiologist, he also recommended surgery instead of radiation. My ENT doctor recommended a head and neck specialist to perform the surgery. I had a surgery on 7-24-1992, only two month after the initial biopsy.
The surgeon told me that it was very rare for a person like me that never smoke and rarely drink alcohol at age 38 to get a tongue cancer. I think I was lucky to be able to take care of this at early stage.
The recovery was a slow process, but I am a 14 year survivor... and counting.