Hello everyone,

My appointment at John Hopkins today was very positive and very optimistic. This facility is amazing, I can't put into words how well run it is and how professional and caring every single person working there is. The doctor spent over a hour talking to me, made me feel like a human rather then just his afternoon appointment. He said the tumor is relatively small and localized and he feels it will be a partial glossectomy rather the the semi glossectomy my other doctor was talking about doing. He felt very strongly that I will get back to 90-95% of my speech and that eating won't be any tougher on me than it is right now. Of course that will all take time and therapy, but just knowing it's there for me is a blessing.
He also feels like he may be able to remove the cancerous area at an angle that saves much of the right side of my tongue. If this can be done, then I would only need a graft to close the defect in my tongue, taken from my thigh. If they end up needing to take more, than I will have the free flap from my wrist. Either way, his plan is just so upbeat and he made us all feel very good. My brother asked him to rate the seriousness of my situation from a 1-5 and he instantly said a 2. That made us all feel good. this isn't a death sentence by any means, and he made sure I knew that.
No surgery date yet but we will have that within the next couple of days.

So, the beginning of my new journey is starting out on a positive note........let's all pray that it stays that way!

When we walked into the waiting room, and I saw the OCF brochure sitting on the tables.......I just knew I was at the right place!

Much love to all,
Minnie