Hi, I'm Nelie.

A month ago I was diagnosed with tongue cancer on the left side of my tongue. I had excision of the tumor and a neck dissection and all the nodes were clean. So my cancer is T2,N0,M0. Wednesday I found out that the ENT surgeon didn't get good margins all around so he needs to do a little more surgery on the tongue. I am already having some difficulty speaking (mainly making a clear "s") and chewing/swallowing and I'm hoping this additional surgery won't make that worse.

Two days after the biopsy results that showed I had tongue cancer, I went in for a regularly scheduled mammogram and was told there was a small mass that needed a biopsy. To make a long story short, I had the biopsy right before my excision/neck dissection surgery last week and found out Monday it turns out I also have breast cancer. The breast cancer is totally unrelated to the tongue cancer but is kind of like being hit twice by lightning and is making me wonder if we have carcinogens in our home. I don't smoke, (I quit nine years ago), and rarely drink and eat a pretty healthy diet.

The good news is the breast cancer is most likely stage 1 (judging by size, they won't know for sure until the node(s) are removed)and is at the low end of the scale for aggressiveness so I'm electing to have a lumpectomy and sentinal node removal followed by radiation. The tongue surgeon and the breast surgeon agreed to coordinate so this can be the same operation as the additional tongue excision. I am having all that a week from today. Then more healing and then radiation, at least for the breast.

But there seems to be disagreement between my surgeon and the radiation oncologist about whether I need radiation for my oral cancer. Apparently at the tumor board meeting, the radiation oncologist at the hospital here said he didn't think I needed radiation since the neck nodes were all clean. But my ENT surgeon thinks I should get another opinion. He said there was some neural involvement with the tumor and he is especially concerned about that being an indicator of a higher likelihood of reoccurence. So I am just starting to look into getting a second opinion and reading posts here about this.

I am young, 46, and would like to live to a much older age but I also teach for a living and I fear permanent drymouth would derail my career in a major way. I'm willing to risk it, though, if it seems that the radiation would really up my chances of survival. Am I right in thinking, from what I read in the FAQ here, that there is no clear research on this? Especially for stage II?

And then there's the issue of getting radiation for two parts of my body at once --breast and mouth--although apparently everyone at our hosptial is agreed they can do this. The hosptial just got IMRt tradiation and I am curious about whether that helps with any of the side effects of radiation, especially drymouth.