Thank you very much for your support everyone.

PaulB, the cancer was detected/confirmed with a regular biopsy from the affected tonsil. The new biopsies I was talking about will be the done from the dissected lymph nodes, as the PET/CT has radiologists confused when it comes to the lymph nodes status. That will also determine what the oncologists will want to do after the surgery - very small option (20%) of nothing if no cancer cells are detected which I am hoping for with all of my heart, or radiation or chemo-radition.

ChristineB, my friends are great - they have already organized themselves for the 2 week post op recovery period- they are on a email list, made a schedule of who gets to some make me company when etc. so that I am never alone. I can not find words for how grateful I am.

Food&eating - this will be a huge issue for me I am very afraid of. I am very slim - 5'6" and 110 lb, which I have been for the past 20 years. I naturally do not eat much, loose weight very easily and it is not easy to gain it back. Whenever I am very stressed my I tend not to be able to eat much, which of course has been hapenning for the past two weeks. I also get dehydrated very easily - in the past 10 years I have ended up in the hospital about 4 times because of severe dehydration caused by simplest stomach bugs, they would usually keep me on continuous IVs for at least 48h. My surgery is scheduled for Thursday so there is really not much I can do about my weight in three days.

I would like to use this opportunity to ask for advice regarding diet after the tonsillectomy (via TORS) as I wasn't able to obtain clear and precise information. I have read the basics about ice chips, liquids and soft food, and know that I should stay away from acidic stuff such as orange juice. I have found disagreements of whether dairy should be avoided or not. How about Ensure - should I start with it already, and if yes, then regular or clear kind? And there was some talk of "magic" numbing mouth wash, what is that exactly? I am hoping to stalk my fridge with the appropriate stuff in the next couple of days.

I have already visited the dentist, and basically I need to get my three wisdom teeth out and one old root canal redone. There is no time to do it now, and my surgeon did not want me to do anything before the surgery, so that will have to wait till afterwards. I will also have to find a new dentist as I am quite unhappy with the way my current one has treated me.

I am having lots of pre-op stuff done done tomorrow, including blood work, chest X rays etc. The thyroid has already been assessed as a nodule was discovered on it last year which turned out to be benign after the biopsy results. However, it did show very big FDG uptake on the PET last week so it might need to be reassessed. I am trying really hard not to think about that one right now.

My treatment center is in John Hopkins and I have already obtained second opinion which did not differ from the original one. Everybody agreed that I am ideal candidate for TORS. They even want to put a picture of my cancer in the revised edition of their textbook as a textbook candidate, urgh.

Rosymonroe, it is comforting to know that there are other people in their thirties dealing with this as I have been feeling like a freak. Although I am aware that HPV+ SCC reacts better to treatment, it has been and it still is extremely difficult for me emotionally to deal with the virus as the cause. I will be writing about it more on some future threads, but for now I will just say that I have had Gardasil as soon as it became available on the market and was in a 6-year long monogamous relationship with my first boyfriend at the time. The odds are really dumbfounding. Sigh...

Thanks again everyone, will be checking this out again tomorrow.