Hello all,

Recently retired career person, currently settled in Pacific Northwest area. Have lived and raised family in Toronto, Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Hong Kong before moving to Pac. NW in 2013.

So my signature will have a mini-timeline summary below. Have Oropharyngeal cancer, HPV positive p16-based SCC. Primary centered around right tonsil, metastasis to neck, submandibular lymph nodes, classified as Stage IVa. Trismus and tongue pain now.

Formally diagnosed Jan. 2014. Was beginning to suspect cancer a few months prior to that. Tried to self treat for 3 months, no obvious results. Went to Mexico for almost a month for cancer therapy. Very good response but was not really sustainable, location, money nor time. So came back to conventional and about to finally take the conventional treatment starting Nov. 17. Will open a thread there in treatment. Thanks to you for all the great insights!

Welcome to OCF! Im glad you have found our site to help you get thru your upcoming battle. The only scientifically proven ways to cure OC are thru radiation with/without chemo and/or surgery. Our site is dedicated to providing its members with up to date, scientifically proven medical info. While its no walk in the park for most, conventional medical treatments are what will enable you to eliminate the cancer.

If you havent already done so, get a complete blood panel including thyroid and testosterone (if you are male). See your dentist to have a thorough check up and any questionable teeth removed now. Also get flouride trays made for when you are doing your treatments. Write down any friends and relatives who offer their assistance. When the time comes you will have some helpers to give you a hand. Last tip...eat! Have all your favorites and even desserts. You will probably lose weight and if you are slim to begin with it will be so much harder on you so eat and try to bulk up now.

Best wishes with everything!!!

HI welcome.. there's a lot of good advice here read up and educate yourself. with this diagnosis - you should have stayed in TORONTO... free health care and PMH... hugs and best of luck.

Thanks much, Christine! In fact, I just completed major oral surgery 3 weeks ago and that was and still is a major blow to quality of life. Can't eat, talk, swallow, sneeze, without pain. PEG feeding tube exclusively now. Fighting weight loss especially because I don't take any simple sugar and simple carb foods.

Staring radiation this Monday, Nov. 17th.

Thanks for the encouragement, Cheryl! Yes, the American healthcare system has a lot of admin baggage to manage. I'm retired now so I have Medicare/Medicaid and in Washington state, it's actually been pretty good once you've gotten all the bureaucracies out of the way.

Was just back in Toronto this past July. Feel of the city has changed quite a bit, constant traffic jams and drivers are crazy aggressive now!

Hi and welcome to the family. My cancer was very similar to yours, but no lymph node involvement, so surgery for tonsil removal and then radiation for 35 treatments was all I got. Treatment ended day before New Years last year, so I'm approaching my 1 year anniversary.

While I did lose 32 pounds during treatment (and 10 more after treatment) I didn't ever have to use a PEG tube. But, I did pretty much survive on Ensure for at least 5 of the 7 weeks of treament.

Hang in there, treatment and it's side effects are different for all of us, for some it's worse and for others, it's not so bad. I was lucky, and one of the not so bad. Still though, almost a year later food taste is still messed up. Lots of things don't taste anywhere near as good as they did before treatment.

There is one good thing when food tastes bad... you don't eat a lot of it, so keeping the weight off is a lot easier.

You'll do fine, just take it one day at a time.

Tony