My baby sister, age 55, was just diagnosed with Stage 4 (golf ball sized) tongue cancer with lymph node involvement on both sides - 5 nodes on right and 1 on left. She had been having significant symptoms since January of this year - 10 months! She had even been scoped and no one found it. We are still in shock and are trying to just get through these early days of tests, feeding tube implant, etc. I think we are even more upset since we recently lost our mother to cancer and this same sister finished a medical trial of 72 weeks for Hepatitis C just over a year ago. Thank God she is completely clear of Hepatitis. But, now, she/we are facing THIS. I feel so sorry for her. She is being very positive. One sister was asking why God would allow this to happen to her after everything else. My sick sister immediately spoke up and said - "God did not do this to me, I did it to myself" - years of smoking and drinking. She also added that the hepatitis was her own fault - years of sharing drug needles. Thankfully, that part of her life is long behind her but now the effects of those years are apparently catching up with her and it's heartbreaking. She lost her husband two years ago; also to hepatitis. So, unlike most newly diagnosed patients - she and we know all too well what to expect. But, knowing does not make it easier to cope - it actually makes it more difficult. Sometimes the unknown can be better than knowing what lies ahead. I don't want to sound so negative, we have every hope that she will come through this. Even with her diagnosis, her doctor believes that she can survive both the treatment and the cancer. As her support system, we are overwhelmed by her needing to receive treatment every day for 7 weeks. Our main focus, of course, is our sister and her emotional and physical well-being. She's still in the early stage of trying to accept the cancer and deal with these early steps of setting up radiation and chemo. Being at Mayo Clinic, we feel she will receive the best possible care (and she's in God's Hands) I know we'll all get through this but having support will be the key. Thank you!!
