Hi and thanks for the welcome. I have never even met anyone with my kind of cancer before. When I got the Dx.. I had a huge swollen lymph node on my left side. I went thru the usual misdiagnosis.. but not real long.. I finally called my neurologist. I also have MS. He said it had nothing to do with the MS but sent me to his ENT.. and that is where I had a needle biopsy. It came back necrotic so I had to go back for another.. and when I did, it was blown on the other side. We were all thinking it was lymphoma.. and so surprised to see it was squamous cell ca of the tongue. They did several biopsies of the tongue until they found it was midline at the very back where the tongue connects to the base. The surgeon recommended surgery.. and it was all just a blurr... I remember telling them.. Hey.. I already have a disease.. my plate is FULL!! I have mulitple sclerosis.. how can I have cancer? I am only in my 30's?? I might add that I rarely smoked.. and hardly drank because of the MS. DIdn't matter..I had to deal with it anyway. Then I got a stoke of luck and was sent to an awesome oncologist. The surgeon had told me I had a 3-5 % chance for 5 years IF I had surgery. My oncologist told me that really what that meant was.. Three to FIVE people out of a hundred LIVED. And even if it was one percent.. he was going to save me. I was young and healthy.. and I was going to be the one that made it. Well that was all I needed to hear!! I jumped on that like a liferaft and started to paddle. They put me in the hospital for the chemo.. 13 days in and 13 days at home. I lost my hearing.. or rather I should say the BUZZING began on day three. It sounds as loud as anyone talking. I thought I would go mad with that. My dad talked with the oncologist and he told him that the chemo might put my MS in remission.. so everyone was grabbing onto that too! I had a fiance who married me the day before my first chemo. My 16 year old son came up to the hopsital every night to have supper with me ( I watched.. they ate ha ha ) On the second cycle I asked them to knock me out. I did a twighlight sleep.. and it helped so much.. it was easier to take and to this day I don't remember all that much . I did alot of meditation..I thought of the chemo as an army of soldiers marching down the line.. fighting the cancer cells. I got into it sooo much I could even hear them shooting and sending off grenades.. I pictured every single part of my tongue and spent hours fighting it mentally. I had a son who grew up playing army.. and he always played with sounds and all the guns.. so I could do this without alot of effort.. I could hear my son in my head shooting. Man.. I never told anyone this stuff before. Anyway I realized.. it wasn't enough to just KILL it.. I wanted it out of my body. So I pictured a big backpack vacuum on me.. and I spent all day sucking up dead cancer cells. And I mean to tell you I spent all day doing this.. I pictured every single part of that tongue and my neck. I was real upset when my hair didn't fall out right away.. everyone else was worring about being bald.. I was worried that if it didn't even kill the hair.. it wasn't working. The nurses showed me tapes of Bernie Siegal and he is totally into the power of positive thinking. And it helped me soo much. I figured that this battle was up to me and I wasn't about to lose. I never once thought I would die.. not from cancer anyway. I decided that I needed to be around for my family.. my son.. and especially for my grandson who I knew was coming one day ( and I am glad to say he is now here and worth waiting for! ) I figured radiation would be a piece of cake compared to the chemo and boy.. what a surprise that was.. I had NO CLUE what I was in for.. but that is another book. I am not sure of your rules here.. but I feel like I just found a precious gift. No one knows what all I have really dealt with. Like I said.. I have never even met anyone with this kind of cancer.. I mean this in a good way.. but I feel so lucky to have found you all. I have so much to tell you about surviving.. and hope and dreams. I have started reading the stories here and starting to realize how absolutely incredable it is that I didn't have surgery. My origianl dr. always said I was a miracle.. I just had nothing to compare it to.. I have been on this journey alone.. The only other cancer patients I have met were at support groups and they all could not understand what mouth radiation was like.. 49 treatments was pure hell. If I go on too much please stop me.. I can't speak so I guess I am rambling with my fingers. So NICE to meet you all. I am just sorry there are so many of you.. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Beth ps..