One of my life's objectives was to not start a New Topic on this particular sub-forum of the OCF Forums, but like my other objective of never meeting an oncologist in his/her professional capacity, I have now officially failed at both!
I had a punch biopsy done under the tip of my tongue because it was getting very sensitive and swollen (my teeth were starting to leave grooves on tongue front), with some clear speech problems.
Came back with 'poorly differentiated SCC'.
I had a tumor removed from under right side of tongue in Fall 2005, after 15 years of white spots and biopsies with dysplasia and keratosis. Completed my XRT series in Jan 2006, so I'm two years, five months past that. Had a biopsy a year ago and only had mild dysplasia.
Had MRI two days ago and will have CT/PET done on Monday. Tuesday I will meet with Dr Hakenslash at UnivWash Cancer Center and Wednesday he will take case to Tumor Board (Combined UW with Fred Hutchinson CC in Seattle).
On Wednesday, I am headed to the dentist for a possible root canal, having just had one three weeks ago. For sure this is going to be a Schedule A tax year!
My ENT said that most likely I will have tip and underside of tongue removed and a 'free flap' procedure done using tissue from my forearm.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11735815I am practicing speaking with tongue flat and using lips to enunciate and it works so I'll be keeping my cell phone <g>, although a 'G' is hard to do that way.
I am really building up quite a CD collection of CT and PET scans and now I have an MRI scan. Fascinating stuf! Wish I knew what I was looking at...
The good news is that I believe I've had my Lifetime Limit of radiation (XRT), so I won't have to do that again!
BTW, I highly recommend punch biopsies over the Cut 'N Stitch kind -- The procedure pain was a little higher, but it faded fast and healed quickly -- No irritating stitches or gaps in flesh to deal with. Two Thumbs Up!
