Hello everyone,

Last time I posted we were about to leave for mom's surgery to remove the lymph nodes & tumor in tongue.

As we waited, only 1 hr. into the surgery the doc came out & said the tumor was bigger & deeper than he thought & could not remove it without taking all of the tongue our options was to do it & her wake up without a tongue or decide on radiation & chemo daily for 7 weeks, we decided on the the treatments. Gosh! I'm so angry, this was our second opinion we took that extra step & traveled those extra miles to see a highly recommended specialist at one of the top in the nation's cancer center & our first opinion was the right one. He made us think that this surgery was going to end all the pain & problems (after recovering) instantly unlike the treatments that would linger on, he set us back about 6 weeks. 3 1/2 weeks ago he tells us that this is not an emergency & sees no reason to rush the surgery, tells us mom is in stage II & now he says she's in stage IV. I knew the tumor was gonna grow, I just don't understand why he didn't.

Her first round of radiation & chemo will start Monday. She will be her sickest, they tell us, in about 2 to 3 wks. (Christmas)her favorite holiday.

I just wanted to keep all of you updated -I knew we had a long road ahead of us but I didn't realize it was gonna be quite like this with so many other obstacles in our paths.

I am thanking each of you for all your posts, I'm kinda numb right now, I know this may sound petty or vain but the thoughts of her hair loss & blistering skin scares me almost as bad as how sick she's gonna be, I think it may put her into some sort of depression or something, I guess because she's a woman with such high tolerance to pain but she's always been one to take such pride in her appearance even at 72 years of age, I hope that statement didn't offend anyone or sound tacky or just make me sound stupid.

I know all of you will be thinking of us, as I have been all of you. Thanks again -Tina
Oyeah, another thing please pray that I don't act on the thoughts of doing something harmful to that quack (just kidding) but I'd like to let him know how I feel.