Hello, all!
I haven't been visiting this forum for quite a while and am glad to see that there's still some quite amazing people helping one another to deal with the various horrors of dealing with this disease.
I have been recently re-diagnosed with SCC on my tongue and now my LIP! I originally went through chemo/IMRT rad in '03, and while it was no picnic, I managed to make it this far. Had side of tongue excised last year-and now have been re-diagnosed with SCC on tongue and lip. Doc seems to be rushing me to surgery (Fri 23Sep), and while I feel it is best for tongue SCC, am completely in the dark as far as lip. He wants to remove aprox 1/3 of lower lip, replacing 1/2 (?) of area with section from upper lip. This sounds bizarre and potentially disfiguring and seems to me best left to a plastic surgeon.....? I've had the area on my lip that always seemed to be "chapped" for years and question whether or not it is realistic to just leave bad enough alone....for the time being. He says I'm "putting my head in the sand" and it could potentially be EXTREMELY disfiguring.
I guess I'm still vain enough to want to make a good-looking corpse!!! :-)
Any similar situations out there? I have NO IDEA of what to expect, and one thing earlier treatment showed me about myself is that I DON'T LIKE SURPRISES!!!!!
Gordon in Atl

Gordon,

I am so sorry to hear of your recurrence. I don't deal well with surprises, either. My thoughts are with you.

Sincerely,
Lisa

Gordom ,I am with you . We have some of the best plastic surgeons in the country right here in Atlanta . I fail to see why your surgeon would have a problem consulting one for your surgery.
Insist on it, and a second opinion, Emory has a great cancer center ask for a referral.
If I can be of any help ,please get in touch.

Marica

Hello Gordon,

I'm sorry you have to go through this again. I to was treated in 03 and have a reoccurance in the same area.
When I had my original surgery I had the ENT & a plastic surgeon do it. Seems like you might want to ask your doctor about that option. Seems easy enough to do once the surgery is complete. The plastic surgeon steps in and completes the job.

Best Wishes, Danny Boy

Hello Gorden,

I'm also sorry to hear about your recurrance, went through the surgery/chemo/rad deal twice myself, and the news of the second time around was devastating.

Since he's waiting until sept 23rd, I think in this case I would maybe get a second opinion on the whole surgery thing. Not so much as needing the surgery, that's pretty obviouly unavoidable, and sorry to say but probably the lip surgery is unaviodable, espcialy if there's SCC ther too. However, I suspect there's more than one approach to the surgery option as far as techique, and a good surgeon/plastic surgeon team should be able to minimize the disfigurement.

As far as leaving well enough alone, it isn't goign to get better, and what well might be mildly disfiguring now will be majorly disfiguring later.

Badger the guy about the plastic surgery add-on/option and see what's up.
Bob

Thanks, guys for all your support. When I spoke to my Doc he did mention that a plastic surgeon would be "available"- whatever that means. Should I insist that the plastic surgeon close up after he removes the affected area? This is the head of the ENT dept @ Emory and I feel fortunate to have him, given that I'm a medicare patient. Don't want to offend the powers that be.....but then again, is IS my face, after all!
Maricia, is your husband also being treated at Emory? I've had mixed results with them- most of the time very progressive and cutting edge (no pun intended), sometimes almost practicing medieval torture methods........
I'm probably making more of this whole thing than is called for-after all, I'm an old hand at this and should be able to take it with a grain of salt......
Dammit, I'm concerned, and frankly, more than a little bit scared at this point.
thanks again, ya'll.
gpk