Hello everyone,

|am going into have a tumor removed from the center of my tongue on Wen. and have no idea what to expect afterwards. I was told I would be "very sore" and that my tongue will "swell" It is being as though it is cancer and therefore Doc will be taking wide margins (approx the size of a dime, I'm told).... possibly going completely through the tongue.
At this time doc is saying "precancerous or cancer" so will need to wait for pathology results 7-10 days.

I just hit my 5 yr mark as being stable from 3A lung cancer. Had a upper left lobectomy and 4 mnths of chemo.

Can anyone tell me what I can expect for recovery time, how long until I will be able to eat, etc.

I appreciate any information you can give me....

SueT

Where are you and where are you being treated?

I'm in the lower mainland.... BC Tx will be at the Cancer Center in Surrey or Abbotsford. The surgeon is a specialist in facial reconstruction and cancer.

Did your dr. suggest a neck dissection as well? This cancer can seed to the nodes and not be picked up on a scan until it has reached a certain size. I say this because most experienced ENTs will remove as certain amount of nodes when they are in there. (mine took 40) one was cancerous and had leaked into the surrounding tissue but had NOT shown up on either my CT (6 weeks prior to surgery) or my MRI (4 weeks prior to surgery)

Some Dr.s make the mistake of removing the tumor and telling you you are cured based on the pathology, only to have a node or two pop up a few months later. This means another surgery, and follow up radiation most of the time.

The surgery itself isn't too bad, though it does sound daunting. I had the tumor removed, a portion of my tongue rebuilt and a neck dissection. I was in for 10 days. There wasn't much pain as the neck dissection numbs you.

I had a trache, NG tube for feeds, IV, Catheter, two dressings (at my donor sites) and two drains (from the neck dissection) By day 8 I was eating. I looked like crap but was ok. Recovering from the surgery was far less daunting than recovering from radiation.

This particular type of cancer - oral tongue cancer - is usually treated with surgery first, then radiation and chemo if necessary. This is because it's usually non HPV related and doesn't respond as readily to rads and chemo - where HPV + cancer does. So the idea is get it all or most of it out. Then smack it with rads and chemo too.

Hopefully you will only need the surgery. Bring a pad and pen or a mobile device you can write on or use to talk, this way if they do put a trache in, you will have a method of communication (trache usually comes out at day 2/3)

If you tumor is at the midline of your tongue I would ask if it will be a bilateral neck dissection as it has the ability to go to either side. Assuming you don't already have nodes showing. Best of luck tomorrow.

Thank you Cheryld for your reply. I did ask about node sampling and was told that due to the location of the tumor it would not be necessary.

Guess it's a good thing I meet with my oncologist next week for a follow up on my chest/abdominal CT..... I have a super relationship with him and trust him completely. I know that he will follow up with what ever he feels will be necessary. I now have some idea of what I should be concerned about.

Thank you again for your help and insight. I will continue looking through posts and try to educate myself a bit more so I can go in with at least some knowledge.

Have a wonderful day.

Good luck with everything. Trust is very important in a dr. you have no idea. I am sure he is very good. It is interesting he said node sampling wasn't necessary as that is generally the first place it goes after the primary location. Maybe it's a very early stage and that is why he feels this way. hugs and best of luck.

Thank you! I guess I will find out more tomorrow and I am loaded with questions now, thanks to this forum.

I will keep in contact

Sue, welcome to OCF. Cheryl has given you great info.

I wanted to wish you all the very best with your surgery. Hopefully all will go smoothly and this will be all you will need to go thru.

Please let us know how you make out.

Best wishes!

Sue,
Do I understand your post correctly and you have not yet had this biopsied?
Tammy

Welcome to OCF, Sue. Sounds like things are going well. If surgery is the only treatment you can get recovered fairly quickly. But this does depend on how much of your tongue is removed.

If radiation and chemo is recommended then you can add several months to recovering and will likely suffer unpleasant and painful side effects.

Hope it has been caught early and the surgery is the total treatment plan.

Don