Hi Michelle,

Apparently "black furry tongue" is a pretty common condition, and for most people it's temporary. It's the papillae of the tongue growing longer than they should.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hairy_tongue

Nobody seems to have a solution, and for me, following my treatment, I had this for, well, about 1.5 years! But, recently, it seems to have gone as mysteriously as it came. This change, or my noticing of it, seems to have coincided with a dental cleaning, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that the two are linked. Maybe?

The good news is, it seems to go away, eventually.

-Seth

47 yr old male non-smoker, social drinker, fit. Jan'10, Stg3 rt tonsil+rt neck SCC, HPV+, rad+chmo Vancouver Cda. 2yr clear Apr'12 London UK. Apr'13 mets recur to lymph btw left lung & aorta, 3x Cisplatin+5FUchemo+20 rad, was all clear but 6-mo PET-CT shows mets to pleura around left lung, participating in St 1 trial of GDC-0980. GDC lost effect and ended July'14, bad atrial fibrillation requiring hospitalisation, start more standard chemo 10 Sep 2014.
Sadly has passed away, notified Jan 2015.