HI. First, thanks to everyone for their support in getting me this far and my eternal thanks for the creation of this site! I had a partial glossectomy on 3/8/13 and my pathology came back with clean margins and 1 out of 61 lymph nodes came back involved with cancer. That lymph node was encapsulated. (I do worry that there may be more lymph nodes left behind in my neck that they missed. I didnt ask doc how he knew when he had taken enough, etc.) I am thankful that there was only one and that it was encapsulated. Now I have to have radiation. Thankfully without chemo. I have my first appointment with a RO on march 28. I also have an appointment with a DO to determine the fate of my teeth. I am extremely anxious about all of this. I have heard horror stories about mouth sores. I have had my share of mouth sores in the past. I have oral erosive lichen planus (in remission now) and my whole mouth would be so sore that I could barely drink water. It would even involve the front part of my throat and tonsil area. Parts of the top layer of my mucous membranes in my mouth would be gone exposing the raw underlayer. Are the mouth sores akin to this or worse? I'm hoping not worse because that was unbearable! I would get steroids for it although I realize that wont be the case in rad treament. The unknown is scaring me and causing great anxiety. I dont know if I can take it if the mouth sores are any worse. I do know that I can get a feeding tube but that scares me almost more! Dont know what to expect from that either. And my teeth! Do they usually pull most of them and what is the criteria?. I have tried to research and I will know soon enough as I have an appointment with the DO on April 3, but if anyone has any insight now, it would help ease my mind. Anyway I am trying to map this journey that I am on. After the rad tx am I done? I mean with this cancer episode. I realize that the cancer can come back and the percentage is high that it will. And that will be round 2. But as for round one, is this the last leg of the treatment or is there more. What's next? Do they do a final cat scan at the end of radiation and do they do follow up scans like twice a year to make sure it hasnt returned? I apologize for bombarding you with questions! There are just a lot of them! Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond!

2/13/13 Dx scc anterior 2/3 of ventral surface of tongue
3/8/2013 partial glossectomy neck dissection at Wake Forest
1 out of 61 nodes had cancer but was encapsulated
4/22/13 rad tx started; 30 sessions over 6 weeks at Wake Forest
6/4/13 finished rad tx
9/5/13 PET scan NED