Hi to all!

What a nice place this is to visit and get information. I must confess to coming back day after day since my diagnosis--T1 SCC of the tongue--and doing my best to learn from those of you who have walked in my shoes and beyond. I am so proud to live in a world where people dealing with this stuff are still just . . . getting on with it. Living, I mean. Being funny, being well-spoken, being a bit out of sorts sometimes, but being so HUMAN!

I confess to being alternately frightened, emboldened and unexpectedly offering solace to everyone who seems to want to give comfort to me. Only reading and learning and breathing slowly in and out stops the worry.

I am scheduled for surgery next Wednesday with a great doc. (otolaryngologist) and I suppose the main worry I have now is that I didn't go for a second or third opinion, and I wonder if perhaps I did the right thing now. I met this guy, we really clicked, he spent a lot of time with me, gave me much better surgical options than my oral surgeons in my home town, and was very thorough and explained away all my questions (of course, those were just the ones I had at the time!) and said he did quite a few of these types of surgeries. All in all he seemed quite top notch. Both my husband and I were totally wowed by this fellow and it seemed that getting other opinions would just muddy the water and make the marching orders more difficult to follow in the end.

But now that I am back home, it is hard to explain the way I felt when I talked with this man and the confidence I had in his abilities. Everyone is shocked that I will be letting him take parts of my tongue and I haven't even let anyone else in his field take a crack at giving me their opinion. But that is just it: how much energy should one expend running around getting second opinions and how much time should one waste? I've been slipping through the cracks of a practice of oral surgeons since 2001, and now I feel that time is of the essence.

Has anyone else been in this position? I am just wondering if I need to reconsider and drag myself around to some other large cities, miles away from my home for some second and third opinions. I really liked this guy and his "vibe." I know it is kind of a new-agey thing to say, but he really did have a good one!

Thanks for the advice. Good thoughts to all.

RLM