Hello. I am a healthy 38 year old wife and mother of 2. In August I discovered what I thought was a canker sore on the right side of my tongue. It felt uncomfortable to stick my tongue out at times, especially while flossing my teeth. I didn't think much of it, as I first noticed it while we were on vacation, but made an appointment with my doctor when we got back. I actually saw the PA at my doctor's office who tested me for thrush and gave me an oral rinse. A week later nothing had changed and the tests came in negative. She sent me to an ENT who immediately felt my tongue, since by now I had a lump, or what I thought was inflammation, and said that I needed to forget about this being herpes. He initially thought it was a benign salivary cyst or tumor and sent me for an MRI. We couldn't complete the MRI because of a dental implant on one of my lower right molars that skewed the view. I then had to have a ct scan which still was partially obstructed due to the implant but showed that this wasn't a cyst. A needle biopsy was performed which came back as epithelial moderate dysplasia. By now just 3 weeks had passed but it appeared that the tumor had grown from 2 to 4 cm. The doctor said that unfortunately, the surface area was beginning to look like SCC. Knowing the approximate size of the tumor I knew I was stage II. This was a Friday, and surgery was scheduled for the following Tuesday.

Surgery on 10/2/12 confirmed it was SCC. Pathology showed it was stage II. The tumor itself was 3x2.5x2 cm and he removed 7 cm of tissue along the right side of my tongue to the back of my tongue and back of my throat. I am HPV-, which was disappointing as I hear that HPV tumors tend to be indolent.

Today, I meet with the oncologist to discuss the next step. I am not at risk, as I see so many of you are. This is so frustrating! I never smoked, I drink socially. I eat mostly healthfully, exercise, take good care of myself, enjoy my life as much as I can. The ENT believes that the irritant that caused my tumor to grow was the dental implant. He believes the friction of my tongue rubbing up against the implant may have caused this. I'm still grappling with that knowledge, that I paid so much money to fix my tooth only to get cancer.

Everyone says I am handling this remarkably well, and that it's amazing my speech is so close to normal given he removed about 20% of my tongue two weeks ago. I am glad to know that I am doing well. I have no choice but to keep looking forward since I have two little ones at home who need me. Let's see how I handle the oncologist's news later this morning. I would appreciate your good thoughts.

Thanks for reading.