Hi, I am 34 and my husdand is 37. He has never smoked, chewed or been a drinker, yet on August 29th 2006 we were told he had cancer. It turns out it was a T2 tongue cancer. The dr removed it and told us he got clean margins and we had nothing to worry about. He said it was all over. He mentioned a CT at that point but never acted on it. Being a pushy wife I bothered him until he ordered it. It showed enlarged lymph nodes with likely mulitiple node involevment. Instead of a biopsy the dr opted for a PET scan, which also popped up hot spots in the nodes. On October 4th my husband underwent a partial radical neck dissection. A NEW dr removed all the lymph nodes on the left side of his neck, which is the same side as the original tumor and then took the first 2 levels out of the right side. He came to the waiting room and told me he was almost positive based on past experience of what these look like that there were at least 2 nodes positive for cancer and that we would need to progress to radiation treatment as soon as he healed. However all path came back clean. We decided to not do radiation. My husband was seen on November 20th for his first 1 month cancer ck. We were told he would be seen montly for a year or so and then not as frequently. On 11/20/06 he was considered cancer free!!! He saw his primary dr on December 6th 2006.......also cancer free!! On December 9th a lesion showed up in the exact place of the original. He had a biopsy on 12/19. Within a week of the biopsy the tumor had completly filled back in and was larger. By January 1st 2007 there were 3 tumors. He has surgery on the 4th of January. The dr took all three tumors out plus 2 cm all the way around them to be sure to get clean margins. When the pathology came back we were devistated. Not only did he not get clean margins, and not only were there not only 3 tumors there were 10! 7 of the tumors were not visible to the naked eye. So now the option of doing or not doing radiation treatment was no longer there. He MUST do it. It appears that the cancer is throughout his whole tongue. The dr's wanted to wait 4-6 weeks after the last tongue surgery to start the radiaiton so that he could heal completly. But, within one week of the surgery he had another tumor! Now the oncologist wanted us to start radiation immediatly! She said "as long as the tumor is a T1 or smaller we can radiate it." So here we are. He now has a feeding tube in place for just in case we need it! I am so scared because the cancers are coming on so hard and so fast. This can't be good! He is young and has no risk factors! What is going on here, why??? We have two young children. I am so afraid that they are not going to be able to control this. I want to be strong for him but I am so scared for me and the kids if this doesn't work. I know that sounds selfish but, as a mom I have to think ahead for me and the kids and what we would do. I do want and NEED him to beat this but I also know that sometimes this is totally out of your hands!!! I am just so scared. He and I have been fighting a lot lately and I know it is the stress of the situation. I am worried I won't be able to be strong when he needs me to!

Grace