My husband was diagnosed with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma on the right side of his mouth, in the tonsil area. He underwent surgery on September 5th to remove as much as they could. They called the procedure a " wide local excision of the right oropharynx". Part of the pallet in the tonsil area was removed and it seems the tumor was in the soft pallet area and not in the bone. They don't feel that it was in his lymph nodes either. They classified the tumor as a grade 2.

Ever since the surgery my husband has had a hard time talking, it is very nasal and hard to understand at times. Will his voice return to normal after time goes by? Also, if he drinks anything too fast it come out of his nose. They said that would eventually get better. Has anyone else ever had problems like this? It gets him very frustrated at times.

Now the other questions, they want to start 8 weeks of radiation and chemo, (4 days radiation/1 day radiation and chemo). The doctor sent him to an oral surgeon who suggested he have 9 teeth removed. (1 widsom tooth & 2 molars on top right, and both bottom wisdom teeth and the two molars next to them). There is nothing wrong with his teeth and after reading some of the postings here, we don't know if he should go ahead and have the teeth removed or keep them.

We are taking all our reports, etc. and going to Indianapolis for a 2nd opinion next Tuesday, just for to be sure we are on the right track.

Are there any particular questions that we should be asking when we get over there? Right now we are sort of in a fog so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

Thanks in advance - I have a feeling we will be getting alot of good advise, after reading some of the other postings.

Susie