hi everyone

I had surgery for oral cancer on January 31, 2002 - a piece of my tongue was removed and I had a neck disection - radiation followed with a peg put in for four months. All of that is over and I survived great.

Sometimes it bothers me to eat - but its ok

I had a minor scare when I felt a small lump under my neck again (opposite of surgery) my doctor said it was okay - he'll keep checking it.

My new problem is dental - I went to a dentist a few months ago and she really did not know how to treat my teeth - she said she would check and get back to me. Never did - maybe she just forgot.

Does anyone out there know of a dentist in the Bronx who has dealt with oral cancer patients - if anyone does please email me at [email protected]

Thanks
Liz

If that lump in your neck is still there and he has not done at least a fine needle biopsy of it, get it done NOW. He can't tell from feeling it if it is a met from your tongue cancer or not, and "keeping and eye on it" means doing nothing in the meantime. This cancer moves quickly once it gets into the lymph system. You want to be sure that it is not there. For your health, for your peace of mind. Re treating your teeth. As long as it does not involve the bone surrounding the teeth, or soft tissue surgery which might heal slowly, treating radiated teeth is no different that treating normal teeth for the most part.

Liz, Brian's right. I had the same thing, lump under my jaw on the opposite side of the original surgery. Sure enough 2 docs didn't think it was anything originally, 3rd suggested doing the pet and it came back positive. The original 2 docs thought possilby false positive, so waited a month, did another scan. Then 3 nodes came back "hot" on the scan. Did needle biopsy to one, sure enough was a met to the opposite side. Second neck dissection, two of the hot spots were malignant, third was an infection of some sort.

Point is, in our case "Lumps" are something to check out, not just wait and see.

Bob