Caripe Diem, many had surgery as their only treatment for early stage tongue cancer, and never looked back since, and wish the same for you. Good luck with surgery, of all dates, but may this bring in a better New Year for 2014. If you can stand that cold, you can do anything, not me Brrr.

Take care

Best wishes for a successful surgery. I will be waiting to see your post that all is ok.

Happy New Year!

Carpe Diem,

I'm glad you were diagnosed at an early stage.

I pray surgery is all you need, and for God's sake stay warm.
Patty Elle

Yes, we're all hoping you need only surgery. But, if that turns out not to be the case, you know where to come for all the support you will ever need. We're here for you.

take care, good luck

Tony

Just a note of encouragement to you. I had a squamous cell carcinoma removed from my tongue Friday, September 27th and was home the following Monday, eating by mouth, swallowing, & talking. I was told I needed the surgery the previous tuesday, so I did not have the time, really, to go online to read forums and get a lot of information. Sort of glad I didn't. No sign of any spreading into neck. My ENT surgeon wants to see me every 6 weeks for a while, have a CT scan every 3 months for a year, then once a year for 5 years.

My very best wishes to you.

Hi Carpe,

As my husband's advocate, I contacted everyone I knew worked in the medical field and was given this advice on the get go: When you call any doctor's office and you have the sense you are not able to get through beyond the administration simply say, 'I would like to have the doctor call me back on this issue'! Now I only used this in the critical planning phase because any lost information or tests that might not get pushed along delays your treatment. I also made a point to ask for a copy of my husbands records, that way there is no wasted time and I was also able to better understand his diagnostics by reading the results myself!

I get the feeling you are very pro-active!
I spent my first Christmas away from my family in Prince George in 1999 before moving to Vancouver for a few years. My little sister lives just in the outskirts of Vancouver.

You go Girl! Best to you, Sophie

First, Happy 2014 folks. I got the last computer problems fixed yesterday. Apparently Windows 8 doesn't like accepting "legacy equipment", i.e. old stuff like my Keytronic Dvorak keyboard.

Thanks Sophie T and all who have been so encouraging. My first name is Norman, 59, and I have never been a smoker.

I had my surgery at Vancouver General on Dec.31/2013. They put me on the 12th floor looking north over Granville Island, downtown, and the North Shore Mountains. There were some interesting fireworks displays throughout the night.

Anyway things certainly went well this time. The previous two biopsies were by scalpel and stitches. This was done by laser. He took a good 1" strip off my tongue (R/H underside) from about the midpoint, back to where it starts down my throat. He also took what he called a papilloma off the top of my vocal cords, a two-for-one deal! That evening for supper and New Year's Day morning for breakfast they served me the same thing: orange and apple juice, Jello, and tea. After breakfast they said I was OK to go. No Chemo or Rads are planned.

I am going to break this up into several posts. For those interested in my procedure, the oncologist who was originally supposed to use the blue light during the surgery was away, so no blue light. All my margins at the surgeon's visual limits. (Sign of cross, fingers and toes crossed, petting rabbit's foot....) As for my future, I will be seeing the MO in Prince George on Jan.15/2014, and my original biopsy surgeon (a colleague of my Vanc. surgeon) on Feb.20/2014.

Hanging over my head is the small spot picked up by the blue light on the R/F of my tongue at the Dec.2/2013 visit to Vancouver. For those interested, this tool is shown on this site in an area called Products/Products for Dentists/VELscope. I am going back and forth with these folks on the use of this technology. They want to use it cautiously, and sparingly, because they say it can yield false positives, gatekeeping as far as I'm concerned. This light shows up early problems not visible to the naked eye under normal light. If someone knows the cost of this device, a post will be welcome. My hope is that if the cost is not too prohibitive, they could become first line screening devices in hospitals where multiple doctors and dentists could have access to them. Of course, if the cost is quite reasonable then distribution could be even more widespread.

This post is for newbies. I could not have written it when I first introduced myself, because I had no experience. Having been at this for 8 months now I think there are some things that newbies need to know.

First, read the forum in order. This means the entire "New Posters Read This First", then the entire "Frequently Asked Questions", followed by as much of the "Introduce Yourself" as you feel you need.

Second, when you go to introduce yourself, here's a tip. If you are like me and thought you would write your intro in MS Word or some other w/p program, to paste in, then forget it. Save yourself the time and aggravation of having your work disappear. There is something in this forum's system that only allows us to type in the official box.

Third, remember that signature/profile/bio you have been encouraged to write? Do it sooner than later or you get an electronic spanking. Another tip, although you may have noticed that some of the veterans seem to have long bios, we newbies are limited to 500 characters. Not sure why.

After you have done these steps, the stuff in the other forum categories can be informative, encouraging, terrifying or depressing. If you have only just had an initial Rx and you are early, then focus on early stuff.

It's great to see your surgery went so well and that you have no other treatment to endure.

I mentioned the Velscope to my dentist as a possible tool to be used in future oral cancer screenings and she said she had read about the false positives issue already about it.

And though you haven't mentioned it yet, there is also another new product on the market. I don't know the name of it, but it's basically a soft brush that you whisk over any areas of interest and then send in for biopsy analysis, kind of a quick look tool. My dentist also had little confidence in this new tool, she basically called it a gimmick.

As for 500 character limits in our signatures, I think that applies to everyone, though I haven't counted characters yet on any of the old heads. I expect that is why they use so many 3 letter abbreviations, which I still don't know the meaning of and haven't made the effort to learn either. I want others to know me for more than just all the procedures I've endured.

Glad you're back.

Tony