Hello all, Eric here... I haven't posted in awhile, and actually I've been doing pretty well of late... My doctor doesn't like that my weight dropped again, but other than that he believes I'm healing up well...

That being said, I've had some interesting pain on the right side of my tongue/mouth the past few days. It reminds me of the pain I felt on the left side of my tongue before my cancer diagnosis. It kind of shoots down into my neck and up into my ear... I looked into my mouth tonight and I noticed a think white line on my tongue -- toward the very back (the opposite side of my tongue where my original tumor was).

It could just be iritation from food (I'm trying lots of "normal" food again, even Chinese food) or from my teeth rubbing, but of course everything out of the ordinary freaks me out... Anyone else have something like this as you healed up? It's been about 8 weeks post-radiation for me... This is the most acute pain I've felt in weeks...

Any thoughts? Am I over-reacting? I hope so, but I don't want to take any chances...

Hi Eric,
I initialy had a sore under my tongue that was biopsied in May 02. Results were negative. In September 02 I started noticing a white line where the biopsy was. Saw the oral surgeon immediately and he said Keep an eye on it, you may have a lumpy tongue. My dentist saw it in March, by that time it had developed into SCC, lucky for me stage 1. Everyone is different, but if it were me, I would check it out.

Sincerely,
Lisa

PS Edited to note that I did NOT have radiation and can't respond from that perspective. I am sure you will get many responses from folks that did have radiation.

Hi Eric,
You need to get everything new in your mouth checked out BUT if I learned one thing after radiation it is this............there are going to be so many weird things pop up in there. Brian told me one time to "be prepared mentally for the TONS of things" I would find in my mouth. The first thing I dealt with was an ulcer on the end of my tongue, had it biopsied as it hung around and it was negative for cancer. It is much smaller but is still there. I also have an area on my cheek that I continue to bite, both sides of my tongue have some trauma from my teeth and from eating all the new foods.
I have a feeling this will continue for awhile yet. Please have it checked out but at the same time take a deep breath and remember that the inside of your mouth is very delicate right now and things will take a bit longer to heal.
Take care,
Minnie

Minnie, you and others always have a way of bringing comfort with your posts -- thanks a lot... My gut is that some food has iritated the back end of my tongue pretty good, as I'm trying to delve back into the world of normal again (even dry foods, which I know I should avoid for awhile)... Since I keep biting my tongue on the left side when I chew, I tend to send most of the food down the right side, where this iritation is... But it still freaked me out to feel this type of pain and then see a little white patch last night...

Consider this my deep breath... ahhhh...

Hi Eric,
I don't bite my tongue much but I have turned my inner cheeks into hamburger more than a few times. They tell me it has nothing to do with the treatment but it wasn't that way before as I can recall. I also notice a lot of stuff in my mouth that I was oblivious too before. So far all have been normal parts of my anatomy. I still have unusual pains from muscle damage from the radiation which is a part of my "new normal".

It takes time to sort out the stuff that is normal vs. stuff that you should have genuine concern about. I relied heavily on my doctors to educate me and people on the site (like Joanna) helped a lot too. It's all part of the rite of passage of being a cancer survivor.

The little white patch could very well be thrush also...

Hi everyone, thanks for the responses... here's the deal as of today (Sunday night): there's a little white streak on my tongue that is still there from the other night... I think that might be thrush or the last remaining white layer of mucosa (spelling?) that used to cover the entire right and left sides of my tongue right after radiation...

What really is giving me pain is where my tongue and the floor of my mouth meet, way in the back on the right side. It's hard to stick my tongue out very far as you can imagine after all it's been through, but we shined a flashlight in on it tonight. My wife says it looks like it's been cut or something. It's definitely irritated somehow and definitely bothersome when I eat... I'm wondering if my jump into eating real foods has anything to do with it since I was on a liquid diet for so long... Anyway, I'll probably call my doc tomorrow and at least have them look at it for my well-being...

Being checked out by your doctor sounds like a good idea.

Hi Eric,

The fun we have looking in places we never looked before!

There is a thing called "geographic tongue" that is a benign problem. It shows up as white lines in a random pattern like borders on a map. You may very well have a problem with thrush. Last of all the "irritated" area is most likely because of the problem we all have with no saliva. If you haven't tried it yet get some Biotene mouth wash, and use it. I frequently get raw irritated areas on my tongue and other tissues. Yes they will cause panic attacks. And YES you should make an appointment to have things checked out. More than likely the problem will go away before you get in the dr.'s office.

If you are going to be looking in there with a flash light, get used to having the panic attacks! EVERY time I do that I see something that is sure to be fatal. SO FAR I HAVE BEEN WRONG!

Trust your doctors to do the looking.

Mark,

I can really empathize! Every little pain, every new nook and cranny causes a quick acceleration in the heartbeat, for sure. I tried to get in to see the doc four times when my mouth hurt so bad I couldn't breathe and every time it was cleared up when I went to see the doc. It turned out to be one of the many faces of thrush and is a bugger to get under control.

Ed

Amen to that - I took so much Diflucan I supressed my white cell count! I used the Nystatin "swish & spit" stuff in the end.

It hasn't been a problem for quite a while now.