Blood is no indication of Head and neck C. And you are not too young. In the past two years since I've been here we've lost two 20 year olds to cancer, and have had several more diagnosed with it. Particularly tongue cancer. Nate was in his mid - 20s. Samantha was 22, and was diagnosed at 19 or 20. Dave (from Australia) was diagnosed at 18. None of them were HPV+, heavy drinkers or smokers. Dave is three years out now and just got married. And last year there was a young teacher who was in his early 20s also diagnosed. He's doing well I believe. But in younger people it seems to be more aggressive. And Sadly Samantha and Nate put up a brave fight but lost their battles.
Drs. Have to start listening!!

My cousin is 19 - and she had something going on for sometime with her neck. Her mom came to me and told me that they'd been back and forth to the dr. several times. She had a large node in her neck. They kept saying it was nothing and were giving her antibiotics. I told her to go back to the dr. they've messed around enough and that they should be seen by an ENT (theres a high incidence of thyroid and esophageal cancer in my husband's family - his other cousin was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 28. Anyway, she got the referral went to the ENT and had a biopsy of the node and it came back as papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. So everyone is thinking - Okay so it's cancer but if you have to have cancer this is the best kind, non aggressive, (the least aggressive of the thyroid cancers) and usually very curable, so her parents are concerned but not totally freaked. I recommended my SO/ENT at PMH - it's a top CCC - he usually does only super complicated and unusual cases as he's a big wig. We weren't sure if they would take her - because its "just a thyroid cancer" but I told them to push anyway, because he is the best, and despite it being considered non aggressive - in my opinion she was unusual. most Thyroid cancers are 25 and up - though usually mid thirties or forties - but here's this 19 year old with it.

So she has two ct's and my dr says he'll take her on as a patient, and says to her parents - they don't really stage this kind of cancer (they do but usually it's so non aggressive that it's not something they bother with) - he also tells them with this cancer its all about accuracy.. not speed. But despite this he does manage to fit her in for surgery within 6 weeks of her diagnosis (I know others with other drs who've waited months as this cancer is not normally a priority). I told her parents to tell him to put them on a cancellation list - even though he rarely has cancellations. Anyway, she'd just had her preop and they called and moved it up to last friday (there was a cancellation). He had said from the outset that he was taking 60 nodes - total - from both sides, and her thyroid - based on her scan. It ended up being a 7 hour surgery, and this non aggressive cancer was all through her neck. He told the parents he was chasing it down her arm, around her vocal cords, and up behind her ear and into her chest area. It was everywhere. He doesn't even know how many nodes he removed. He told the parents I didn't stop to count, I just followed the cancer. He will know when the final path comes back. He also removed her parathyroid as they/it couldn't be saved - and when I did finally look up her staging based on the description of the involvement I was given, she's an advanced stage IV. I am so glad she didn't see someone else who would have made her wait much longer. My point is...

NOT EVERYONE IS STANDARD.

I didn't tell you that to scare you. I told you that because some people only look for standard. "The NORM" well we are individual biological entities - we all respond differently - so just because it doesn't normally happen, doesn't mean it can't.

hugs and push.