Here I go again I have that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. My mom just came from her dentist and her tongue has been hurting in a particular area and it seems like her tongue is really hard in this area. The dentist seems to think that it is scar tissue. But he said that it could possibly be a tumor because both scar tissue and tumors have a hard feeling and he said it may feel like a lump although he is not a doctor. So I just found out about this tonight and I am calling her doctor first thing in the morning but I just wanted to see if any body else developed scar tissue on their tongue? and if it was at all painful? I know they really radiated the heck out of what little tongue she has left and I'm hoping this is just scar tissue. I went back through the old posts and saw nothing about this.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated. I would love to get a good night sleep.

Thank you,
Danielle

Danielle,

I have a hard spot on the center of my tongue real far back. It was very dry and split during radiation. It hurts from time to time but nothing shows up on the scans and the ENT has checked it every visit and says it is probably just scar tissue. I hope you have nothing to worry about. Just remember the posts that say it is only cancer AFTER they say it is. We all live with the fear that every lump, every sore is cancer and probably always will.

Ed

The dentist is right in his assesment. Both scar tissues and SOME tumors feel the same when palpated, firm or hard, fixated in place. Feeling is a good indicator to look further, but it is hardly a difinitive way of decerning anything. Sometimes a tumor will be friable on the surface (surface disintegrates easily or bleeds when rubbed) Given all that she has been through, scar tissue seems like a good call, but where this is in relationship to the orginal tumor, incision, etc. plays a big part is making a "good guess". But you know the call... without microscopic evaluation you just don't know.

Thank you Ed and Brian I read your posts right before I went to bed last night and I actually slept. My mom was over at my house last night because she is taking my baby girl to the zoo today. She ate tomatoe sauce yesterday and really irritated her tongue. Now since the dentist told her about the hard spot on her tongue she says it feels really weird on that side of her mouth. She said it almost feels hard to swallow on that side and it seems really swollen.

In relation to the other tumors (which by the way when palpatated would always bleed and had a much different appearance than this.) This is near the base of her tongue on the right side but its hard to say exactly where it is because with her sugery in April 03 they took what used to be the front of her tongue and made it the side of her tongue so it is in the area where she had stitches etc. Just hard to say where it is in relation to the other tumors. So I am calling her ENT this morning and setting up an appointment for her to go in and have it checked out. Agggh! This is the most torturous horrible cancer in the world. I just can't get it out of my mind. And my life was just starting to feel somewhat normal again.......
I'll keep you guys updated.
Thank you!
Danielle

It's too soon for tomato sauce! I had to avoid acidic foods for quite a while. Even fruit burned.

Two weeks after radiation I tried some Ragu and spaghetti and I expected the sauce to burn but it didn't. I was so surprised and glad to find something that went down easy so I started eating 2 then 3 times a day. I used the plain stuff and even tried about 5 different flavors but the plain worked the best. Sour cream, yogurt, mashed potatoes, fruit, everything just burned like the dickens. I still have several large jars of the sauce left and I went through a mountain of them from October to January.

Ed

Well I talked to her ENT and he scheduled her to go in on Tuesday. He said that a lot of times that the dentists don't know the complete history of surgeries etc and that when they look in the mouth everything looks out of place. Which trust me it does because part of it is white (skin graph from leg) all the teeth on the right lower are missing and her tongue just barely reaches her teeth so it looks crazy in there. He is pretty confident that it is just scar tissue from a surgery but he wants to take a look to set our minds at ease and he will biopsy if he feels necessary.

My mom is pretty funny she thinks she can eat everything she used to (Mexican Food, Spaghetti sauce etc.) she gets frustrated when she has a hard time swallowing. But honestly she is doing so well.

I will keep you guys posted....

Thanks again,
Dani