Hello from New Delhi, India

Well, that's where my father in law is, and he is the one with cancer. I am in michigan. We just found out papa has oral tongue cancer two days ago. I have been spending hours upon hours upon hours since then trying to find out what kinds of doctors he needs to see. The thing is that he had a condition called oral lichun planus that is what caused his ulcer, so we were hoping to find some oncologist who would be able to treat or remove the cancer without aggravating the pre-existing condition that caused it in the first place.

We only have initial biopsy results and won't have much more until tuesday.

Anyway, it's my husband who I am trying most to comfort, he gets on a plane to go to new delhi this week while I stay here and hope for the best.

I am not asking my husband to get too involved on research at this point, because I guess I want to protect him from the potential reality of what papa could be facing, because papa is a healthy man I feel can do fine with this. I think papa is either in stage 1 or 2, based on the size of the ulcer which takes up about 1/3 of the left side of his tongue. Our main concern is to find other doctors for a second opinion as soon as possible because if not he may have to just go in for surgery as his current doc says to. But I don't trust these docs there because if he had been properly diagnosed by the dermatologist he saw in 2002 he would have been aware of the importance of regular checkups for oral lesions.

I will be glued to this forum for days to come. Any helpful suggestions for avoiding redundant or outdated info are welcome. God bless all of you for your fight and wish us all the very best in the coming days. In the future I hope to be a more contributing member for those who need help like I do right now.

Natasha

I had the OC of my tongue also. Truthfully, they took off a large piece of my tongue and did a neck dissection ay Ohio State University James comprehensive Cancer center. I gradually had to have Radiation and Chemo, my teeth removed for this and for Radiation Seed implants to be put in my tongue. I am winning my war and am 72 yrs old. How old is Papa? I have a feeling I am older and if I can whip this stuff, he should be able to do it also. Most people that have OC don't go thru all I had to so I will pray he is among that group. You end up with a sore dry mouth after the rads aand chem, and a neck that feels different from the dissection. There are a lot of variables that go with OC depending on the RO's treatment. Good luck and tell him to put on the gloves and whip it.

Hi Sir,

thanks for the reply! I'm very alarmed because I didn't get a notification about your post in my email even tho I set this up in my preferences. This means that the few hours I spent today tracking down people in this website who live in in India and sending them messages might have been a waste of time too. The website doesn't seem to work very well. It has me very anxious...so I need to find out about that!

Anyway, papa is 57 or 58, in stage 1. and we are not able to even find out whether his cancer is well or moderately differentiated after two conflicting biopsies, which from what i understand makes a big difference in prognosis. We are really concerned about finding a good doctor. doctors in india are not always very thororough and know less about preventive care. husband leaves in a few days to go to india. the weight of doing the research is on us. Next I need to look into treatment options, but it sounds like most of the docs papa has seen recommend surgery. So either way time is of the essence.

god bless,
natasha

Did they what they think caused his cancer?

How old is he?

Exactly what did they biopsy say about the type of cancer?

This site works great so I'm sure it's just you getting used to using it.

This site is also the best OC site in the world, bar none and you will find it extremely useful.

I wish I had some good advice to post for you. I wish you and Pappa the very best.

Hi Natasha,

I have already mailed you some details do check you mail.
Since you said that your papa in Stage 1 its kinda good to hear.
About doctors in India, well there are some really good docs here also and trust me after listening to some of the stories on OCF i felt we here have better docs, who wld attend phone calls at midnites just to answer our queries which is really very helpful.

for some reason this site hasn't notified me of posts and now i have pretty much no time to respond and leave for india...sorry for the delayed reponse.

I have to Drs that have both called me after 10PM and one that called a couple of weeks ago while he was on Vacation. We all must have some good caribng Drs but the bad ones come to the front it seems.