Informed today I have a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
- stage 2 2.1cm x 8mm - the medical term being T2 N0 M0 (I think I wrote that down correctly)and in terms of grade 'moderately differentiated'.
I'm having my operation next week and will have around 1cm around the ulcer removed - a third of my visible tongue. I'll also be having a saliva gland removed and a neck dissection for the removal of my lymph nodes on one side.
Nothing particularly untoward came up on my CT or MRI scan that wasn't already obvious - but still it's a lot to take in, though I appreciate it could have been worse.
Three and a half hours in theatre and then up to a week in hospital being fed via a nasal gastric tube.
May need radiotherapy, but apparently I will not know this until the pathology reports 10 days after my operation.
Seeing the head/neck specialist nurse in a couple of days when I'll know more about after care re. swelling,restricted movement in my neck/shoulder speech problems etc.
Told that it's very unlikely I have HPV as this is not prevalent in tongue cancers such as mine - more likely in those of the throat etc.
Any observations welcome.