Hello I am punkinsue, recently diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Tonsil. I had a left tonsillectomy with removal of a portion of the palate and excision of surrounding tissue last Thursday, April 7th. I have a referral to an oncologist for radiation therapy more than likely. The extent of the therapy to be determined pending tests. I am going to need much support as this came out of left field. No one in my family has cancer and I have never smoked in my life. Hope to meet some wonderful people on here to be mutual supports and to gain information as I progress through the stages of recovery

Welcome to OCF, Punkinsue! You have definitely found the right place for support. We will help you get thru this.

There are many here who are nonsmokers who have ended up with OC. Many of them are HPV+ with their tumors being in the base of their tongue or tonsil areas. When your test results come back, you may want to inquire if your HPV+. There are also some eher who have no known cause yet they have developed OC. Regardless of why its happened, it needs to be removed.

Best wishes with your continued recovery. Check in often and keep us updated as you go.

Thank you for your encouraging words

Hello Punkin - welcome to the family. It's a big family, very supportive and knowledgeable about all aspects of diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer. You will get better quality answers here than perhaps anywhere other than what your doctors tell you.

There's lots of important information on the website, so start reading that. It will help prepare you for what will occur during treatment.

There is a search function at upper right of this page where you can type in any phrase you want to learn about. It is a great place to start getting your questions answered.

Good luck with your upcoming initial meeting with the oncologist. Take a notepad with you to that meeting, you will get a lot of new information that you will want to know more about.

Good luck, and welcome to the family.

Hi Punkinsue! I am also an RN. After my surgery, I was anticipating chemo and radiation and ended up needing neither which was a bigger surprise than the diagnosis for me. I hope all goes well at your initial meeting with oncology. They told me I had a 30% chance of not needing chemo/radiation and I ended up not needing it! So who knows. Keep us posted! Denise

Thank you for your encouraging words.

I'm having a problem locating new people on the forum. Many new people to the forum are family members. Maybe you can guide me.

Look for them here in the Introducing Myself forum, and for people making their first post. Similarly, when they joined the forum is shown as registered date at left. Lastly you can go to top of page and click user list and then sort by date, by state, by a lot of different things.

When I first joined there were several people who were diagnosed about the same time, within several weeks. I have noticed some people do not find the forum until after they are further along in treatment. I hope you are doing well! Denise

Welcome to the best first-hand OCF cancer forum around. We all know it cause we been through it. We're not doctors but with hundreds of folks discussing their situations you will get a lot of knowledge very quickly here.

Start reading up and ask plenty of questions. You've arrived early in the days so have time to get educated to make informed decisions you will be comfortable with.

Thank you for your message and encouragement. I appreciate all the support at this time. I am still trying to accept this as a reality and each day I feel I am making progress. I see the oncologist for the first time today. Hopefully it will be informative and not terribly stressful. Thank you
Suzanne B

Thanks I'll keep looking. First appt. with the oncologist today at 3. Hopefully I will know more after that. Still in mega pain from the surgery. Maybe he can help with that too...


Suzanne B

Thank you so much for your message. I will continue to look each day for some partners to go through this with. I appreciate hearing from you survivors as it gives me hope that it can be arrested. I'm a fighter but I know it's gonna be
Tough. Thanks again
Suzanne B

Welcome! I too, am new to this journey. I have found this site to be very encouraging and truthful and helpful. You will find out lots of information here from people who have gone through and are going through what you are.
best wishes with your journey!

Be sure to let us know how things went with your oncologist yesterday. The first couple of days after surgery can be tough, so I hope you're getting through it OK. I know from experience that keeping the pain meds flowing before it starts to feel awful is the way to go. Need to stay ahead and not chase the pain. I'm sure your docs and nurses have told you this. They're right!

My pet scan came back without mets or lymph node involvement. I will be having a scope of the throat to rule out any possible problem. My mask was made for my radiation treatments and that was interesting. Made it through though. Thank you for all your kind words and advice. Tonsil area is still healing after 3 weeks which is concerning me. My surgery was a little more involved than the regular tonsillectomy as much tissue was removed surrounding the tonsil including part
Of the palate.