Hello everyone. My name is Lisa and I have been reading your posts since sometime in early April when my Aunt Rosemary was diagnosed with Stage 3 SSC of the base of her tongue. Before I go on, I really do want to thank all of you kind, generous and brave souls for sharing your pain and your triumphs with all of us "lurkers". I simply can't tell you how much I admire your strength, your courage and your stick-to-it-iveness in battling this disease. Your stories and of course the information is so valuable to those of us who are newly thrown into this whirlwind unexpectedly.
My Aunt Ro had a large portion of her tongue removed and reconstructed with a grafted free-flap on May 19th. She is recovering well, is breathing on her own, swallowing liquids and has just started eating regular foods again. Her PEG is being removed in a week! We were overjoyed.... until she got the news yesterday that one of the biopsies done during her surgery (way back on May 19th) came back bad. She's now been told that she has a cancer on the floor of her mouth. The bad news is that this one is fast growing, whereas the tongue was a very slow growing variety. She's been offered radiation treatments for six weeks but she really would prefer not to do that. This is my question-
is there any other treatment for cancer of the floor of the mouth? We are hoping that she has some other options to choose from. Of course if this is the only choice she has, she's said she'll do it but I do understand her feelings after all that she's been through already. She'd like to feel that she has a choice, that she can participate in choosing her treatment. Any information you can share or any suggestions would be truly appreciated. We are gathering information on this new challenge before she sees her surgeon and her Oncologist in a little more than a week. And just out of curiosity...... have anyone's biopsies taken six weeks to culture?
That seems like a long time to us.

Thank you and may God bless you all with continued strength, courage and generosity.

Sincerely,
Lisa Stankus-DeStefano
Long Island, NY

"With God, ALL things are possible".