Welcome to OCF! Im very glad you have found the forum to help you. Its full of members who will give you tons of support along with providing important info to help get you thru your upcoming treatment.
The best thing to do is go to a top rated cancer center. It has been proven to have better success in treating patients. If your doc is suggesting you go to a specific facility for treatment, do NOT go there for your second opinion as they are affiliated with that doctor. Usually a doctor will suggest radiation (with or without chemo) as the second course of treatment not surgery. Having surgery after radiation makes healing much more difficult and has many more complications operating on radiated tissue. A top US cancer center will use a team based approach where you will have a whole team of specialists who will get together to make up your treatment protocol. What happens without this team based approach is that surgeons always suggest surgery, radiation docs will say you need radiation both making it seem like their way is the only way. See why a cancer center with a team based way of doing things works better? Plus being treated at one of the top cancer centers will give you better chance for survival. At stage I it was caught early so should be easily treated.
Here is a list of cancer centers, please look it over and try to get into one of these top facilities. Many treatment centers will have the words "cancer center" in them but they are NOT the countries best facilities.
Top Cancer Centers The numbness could be from swelling or it could be something with the nerves in your tongue. When it heals, hopefully it will go back to normal.
Please feel free to ask questions. We have all been where you are, new and afraid of what comes next. The unknown is always a scary proposition especially when facing serious health problems.
I can also send you the link for the proper protocol for handling oral cancer cases. Its designed to be specific for each scenario and will help you to understand what a correct treatment protocol would be for your situation.
Best wishes with everything!
