I've read through a lot of your threads and responded to a couple today. It seems only fair that I explain my situation, too.

I'm a 26 year old female who has never smoked, drank in moderation, never tried drugs, stayed fit, yadda yadda yadda. Lot of good that did me, huh?

11/03 I started biting my tongue at night, or so I thought. My teeth are sharp, so I asked the dentist to file down my teeth in 1/04. That helped for 2 weeks and I wanted to return. He suggested either a nightguard or an oral surgeon. I tried the drugstore nightguard for 4 nights and it just became worse. I went to oral surgeon who said "Oh! Just a simple ulcer. Nothing to worry about. We send the sample off to the lab, just as procedure. See you next week for your stitch removal".

Surprise! Somehow I've been graced with an "older person's cancer, most commonly found in heavy smokers and drinkers." Yeah, right. I used to pray daily to hit the lottery. Someone misunderstood which one I meant. I've changed that prayer.

I smile at many of the questions or reactions I read about here. Someone must hop the "emotional reaction to cancer brain" from person to person. It sounds like we've all shared it.

My cancer was Stage II SCC in the mid-left tongue. I had a subsequent surgery to obtain a 1cm cleam margin on 3/25/04. Tomorrow I start week 3 of radiation, and the side effects they promised wouldn't hit until now hit on day 2 and 5. After radiation, I go into the hospital for bracheytherapy. For those of you unfamiliar, they place mini-glass tubes into the underside of my jaw and stick radiation seeds through them into my tongue. Believe me - I've spoken to enough people to understand this sounds much worse than it really is.

The majority of my fears, tears and questions have stabalized. The remaining issue (besides physical appearance - come on, I now lisp and have radiation burns on my face. Every 26 year-old is jealous of me), is being so young for this type of cancer. I'm in a Young Adult Cancer Support Group, but it just doesn't seem quite right. You still feel a little bit different than them.

I would be so happy to find even one other young woman going through, about to go through, or having gone through what I did (surgery, radiation, the works). This disease is becoming more and more prevalent in younger people, so I know more of me exist. If anyone like me is out there, especially in my area, it would mean the world to me to find you.

Sabrina