Thanks to so many of you. It is now four weeks after surgery ( I had a partial maxilectomy due to epidermoid carncinoma, stage two). I went to my maxiofacial doctor and he was so surprised to see how well I've healed and how positive I was. I told him about this website and how much it helped to be able to speak to people who can share and lead me down to the road with a positive outlook. Also I told him I cleaned it so he wouldn't have too. My Head and neck doctor said he removed all the cancer but that he would be remissed as a surgeon if he didn't refer me to Radiation for consultation. That I'm not ready to do until I come back from vacation. My Oncologist said that if all the cancer was removed we can speak of radiation if it comes back. So I'll deal with that at a later time. Right now I'm going to celebrate the fact that I recovered from the surgery, better than I expected and feel absolutely wonderful. What was once a dark lonely place, has become a shinier, brighter, happier place and I'm so glad I'm alive and I feel blessed to have such a wonderful support team of doctors, family, friends, co-workders and this website. I would love to do a fundraiser or something to spread the news about OCR and this website.

Until then, thank you everyone for everything. Now it's my turn to give back.

Happy and feeling good in Long Beach, CA.

Donna

Congrats, Donna, on such a good report! I am pleased for you.

The issue of radiation or no radiation is a common one. There are two schools of thought. I had a similar surgery to yours, as we've discussed. I had clear margins, an undifferentiated lesion, and a neck dissection with no positive nodes. My surgeon decided that I did not need radiation, and that he, like your doctor, got all of the tumor. His thinking is that radiation to the mouth is beastly, as shown my many here, and that if I had some sort of recurrence, which he doubts, then I would still have a chance to use radiation. I think that wiht the maxillary/palatal surgeries, it is somewhat easier to get all of the cancer. Please enjoy your vacation, and please stay in touch.