Hi everyone....i am new..and am sooo happy to find this website..so much to talk about...first..Thankyou to all of you who are willing to share and help me...there is not much here in Alberta Canada...and its great you are all here for the same reason..support and information....i look forward to our future chats...my surgery was last April..i had a partial dissection of 3/4s of my tongue, my donor area was my left arm and thigh...so far so good..have another checkup today...will keep in touch.
Karen N

Karen, welcome. So glad you found this place - I felt the same way when I first discovered it. The people here are amazing. Glad everything is going well, and please tell us more!

David 2

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the group..so glad you found us.

To keep from repeating your medical history..please go to the top of the page..under "My Stuff"..."profile"...all the way to the bottom under "Signature" and fill in your information with timelines, etc. See my signature at the bottom...you can use any format you want. That information will help us answer any questions you may have and let us know where you are at.

We look forward to your posts!

Welcome to OCF, Karen. Hope you are doing alright with your recovery from the surgery. You have found the very best place for oral cancer info and support. You will find tons of info on the main pages and here on the forum. Both the main pages and the forum also have a search function.

Hi and welcome Karen,
Hope all goes well with your checkup and glad to hear that you are doing OK.
Gabriele

Karen,

I'm very glad that you've found our little oasis on the net...sorry you had to but we're sure happy you're here! What you will find on these forums is support and advice from people who've been there and done it and are still in the fight no matter how far out of treatment/surgery they are.

Take solace in the fact that you now have people that will be able to relate to where you've been and what you are currently going through as well as the experience to help guide your way down this crazy road we call cancer.

Big hug my dear, welcome to the fold!

Eric

Hi Karenn,

Welcome to the group!! It's the best group of people...although most of us have not actually met in person I feel like I have.

Looking forward to hearing how your appointment went..keep us posted:)

Hi Karenn,
Welcome to OCF! Hate that you had to look us up but glad that you did. This is the best group of friends around.

Hi there, i was glad when i found this forum, so I am glad you did too!
I had almost same surgery, mine was on right, i had a "hemi" instead of partial, so they took half my tongue, and i had a neck dissection also.
But same flap from wrist and thigh!

I also had surgery last april, the 13th to be exact,

Did you have radiation or chemo?

What deb said about the signature is a good idea! It helps us to know where you are at in treatment and what you have gone through, which helps us answer any questions you may have, or relate better.

Glad to hear you are doing good, and look forward to more posts from you,

Hi Karen: I am new, too, new to this site, new to cancer. I have only been posting and reading posts for about a week now, and it has changed my life. I feel like it is here (and only here) that people get it. I am surrounded by amazing and loving support, but even my partner is on the outside. On this site, I find everyone's posts full of wisdom and insight. I don't have much wisdom to pass along, but I will try to help you any way I can even if just to say we are here for you. -Michelle

Welcome Karen, and Michele Anne , you've found a great support system here - everyone is great.
I'm a newbie too dx dec. 20. Surgery Feb 4th... EEK... Best of luck with everything!

Hi, I am also new to the site this is my first post. My father was just DX with stage 3 base of the tongue cancer. He has complained of a soar throat for about 4-6 months and about a month ago he actually felt with his fingure that there was something. Left base of tongue) Yes, I am fearfull my father is 66 years old and has no medical history other than a somoker since the age of 13. A biopsy is scheduled with lymph tissue and peg tube placement to. Pet scan shows a little something in base of left lung. I went to his appt. and am surprised how fast they go through things and then after your home all the questions come. I'm wondering do we go ahead with the peg tube before we have the whole plan of treatment in order. I am worried about the side effects to treatment also chemo and radiation is the plan and then possible surg after TX.- Ceazar

Where is he being treated?

A tad surprised about the prospect of surgery post Tx but you don't mention whether or not there may be any nodes involved presently.

PEG placement pre radiation is not that unusual.

WE always tell newbies to take a pad & pen or tape recorder when going to a doc appt and don't hesitate to say "whoa, slow down" to any doc.

Hope he's quit smoking now.

What are they planning to do about the lung uptake?

You can always get another opinion but so far everything sounds normal.

He is being treated in northern michigan, it is a biopsy of the mass and a node in the area because the needle aspiration came back inconclusive. No, he still is having a occassional smoke related to the stress, he states it bothers his throat though. I was told that after the biopsy he will then see the oncologist to see what they say about the lung issue. I feel like I am not getting the real picture or is that just normal?
How did the radiation go? My biggest fear is that my dad won't be able to handle it.
Thank you for the support, it is nice to talk to someone who knows what it is like. Ceazar
Keep on Riding:)

Hard to answer all of your questions without more info but as he progresses thru the Dx more will most likely be answerable.

You will hear this a lot and that is we all can respond differently to the same or similar treatments but again let's wait until we know exactly what's planned for him.

Re the smoking...you need to tell him that if he continues to smoke he will die. Period, end of his life. We have never had a poster, to my knowledge, on this site that smoke during or post Tx that has lived to tell about it and they die in a short period of time in the most gruesome way. Tobacco is what has caused his cancer and stopping it now while continuing to smoke will not prevent it from recurring and since he has shown a propensity of the tobacco to cause cancer in his body then he's playing with a bomb that will explode. Smoking with the stress excuse it just that, an excuse to continue a deadly habit. Getting him to stop using tobacco is just as important as killing his cancer. Doing either one without the other is useless.

Ceazar....Welcome to OCF. Please begin your own posts instead of adding onto another persons posting. This way we can properly focus on what your post is about and not take away from the original post, Karen's. (Sorry Karen)

Ceazar, Im a former smoker. Quitting is not an easy thing to do but this is his wake up call. He needs to conquer the addiction and throw away the cigs and get serious about beating this. Upon diagnosis I was so shocked that I did not quit immediately. It took me about 2 weeks to wrap my head around the idea that I was sick and might not be around to raise my children. I was horrified and couldnt handle one more thing until I better understood the situation. Once I got a handle on it, I threw the cigs away and never smoked again. Please encourage your father to understand that he might not get another chance to quit. I hope you understand Im not beating you up about this, Im trying to help you to help your father. David is also trying to help in the above post.

If you dont think you are hearing the whole story, go with him to his appointments. Nobody should be going alone. They should take someone along to be their 'secretary' and write things down and have a list of questions ready. If he wont let you go, then have him tape record it and write down a list of questions. Most doctors do not mind being taped as they know it is helpful to their patients.

Thank you everyone!-- Karen- I am sorry to invade on your post, I am still trying to figure out how this all works. Thank you christine and Davis for your input, every bit helps. I will post new info as it arises. Thanks again- Ceazar