Oh goodness! Well, I guess I can live with a hairy tongue. It sounds like it's well worth it to preserve the mobility. Cheryl - I'm not sure why they chose the thigh and not the wrist. I will ask my surgeon when I call him today.

I am a little concerned still, though. I saw my oral medicine specialist at the cancer center yesterday. Of all my doctors, he is the one I trust the most and feel the most comfortable talking to. We had a long talk about what was said at the tumor board and he mentioned that the downside of the graft was that it would cover the area where my cancer would be most likely to recur (I've had problems in the same area for almost 12 years, he thinks it's a genetic issue). He said they would be following me closely and using MRI, etc. to monitor me so they would be able to catch a tumor even if they couldn't see it. I'm not too sure about that. My original tumor wasn't visible on my MRI and it was 15 mm long and 4.5 mm in depth. I would hate to have a hidden recurrence and wait until it was really big for it to show up on scans. I know these are questions for my surgeon and I plan to call him today. Just trying to get my thoughts straight and make sure I ask all the right questions.

Tracy - 33 at diagnosis
SCC right ventral tongue Dx 4/11.
T1N2M0
1st resection 5/11.
Bilateral neck dissection: 2 pos nodes
2nd resection w/graft 6/11.
Erbitux x 11 completed 9/11. IMRT x 30 completed 8/11.
3 month MRI and PET/CT all clear.
6, 9, 12 and 24 month post treatment MRIs all clear.