I received a call from my Mom's ENT today telling me that she wants to remove a 1cm lesion from her tongue as she suspects it's cancerous. Crap, as if the past ten years haven't been challenging enough with post treatment issues, now the possibility of a recurrence is looming. Apparently I was under the false impression that after a certain amount of time, the incidence of recurrence might dwindle. The doc told me she sees a bit of it and thought it could be due to the amount of radiation she received. I dunno.

Mom's caregvr. DDS failed to dx 01/03. Dx Stg IV SCC 05/03. Induct. chemo, IMRT, 5FU, H, Iressa, Neck disect, radiation. Dad's caregvr. Dx 01/04 Ext. Stg SCLC. Mets to liver/bone 08/04. Died 11/12/04. Mom tongue CA dx 06/13, hemiglossectomy (80% removed) 08/13. Clean margins and nodes, but PNI. 6/15/15: Tongue CA at base of remnant tongue. Declined further tx; hospice.
Died 10/13/15. What a long and difficult journey.