Tony - Great advice above! While it's no fun going bankrupt, you can certainly survive it. If you wait too long, cancer may not be survivable. Stuff happens. When my son was diagnosed, he was recently divorced, had no job, no health insurance, no sweetie, and in therapy for suicidal depression. I did what I could to help him, but surviving cancer without insurance gets mighty expensive, so after selling everything he owned, he went bankrupt. Six years later, he has everything he had before the downturn in his life and then some which includes a great job, health insurance and a wonderful new sweetie to share his life. You can survive this. Hospitals have programs to help with finances. You will feel better once you get going and get a plan of action.

Oral cancer has a 50% mortality rate - it can be aggressive. And despite the fact that HPV related OC generally responds well to rads and chemo, that's not %100 of the time. There are a few members here who are HPV positive and have had numerous dances with the big 'C". Do what you can to nip it in the bud the first time around.

Not all hospitals are created equal or cutting edge. Not all hospitals have the knowledgeable experts available to treat head and neck cancer. Most cancer centers have really good ENTs, with experience in H&N cancer as that is WHAT THEY DO day in and day out. And all ENTs are not made the same. This reminds me of the commercial on TV now... cant remember what it's for but you'll get the idea...

Cheap is good, Sushi is good. Cheap sushi... not so good. A rich corpse is still a corpse. Do what you can to save your life. Everything else is manageable in time. But do look into what you can do now to lighten the load financially. Being fiscally intelligent is also important.

best of luck.

I dont mean to hijack this thread....I want to clarify the statistic Cheryl mentioned above. At 5 years after being first diagnosed with oral cancer only 57% of the patients are still alive. Sadly the other 43% have passed away. So yes, almost 50% will still be around 5 years later. Ive seen many good people pass away during the 6 years I have been on this forum. Many of them were my very close friends and I miss each one very much.

Now back to mrbmx. I hope the center you mentioned is part of the Cancer Center list I sent you. Sorry, I can only remember the top centers like Moffitt, MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering and Johns Hopkins. Those 4 are the top oral cancer treatment centers in the US. I know some sites like these have places to stay which they will give to the patient for free. Everything else is negotiable. If the center doesnt offer a program for uninsured patients, make payment arrangements. It really does make a difference where you are treated, this is a proven fact.
Where you are treated matters article

Best wishes!