Christine,

I saw a second team of ENT surgeon, Radio Oncologist and Oncologist at CCC in Chicago. Team spent full two hours to discuss my case with all possible scenarios, pre and post treatment conditions and trade offs attached to each options I was presented. They admire my proactive approach of having homework done ahead of time. They really impressed since I gave them biopsy, endoscopy, PET/CT DVD and a first full opinion (30 pages) by CCC in Ohio. It was really easy for them straight jump on discussing options than going through all diagnosis again.

Below is a drawn conclusion (recommendations) by second team.
Stage : T2N2 (III)
Options: Surgery + Combo of Rad$Chemo (Based on second pathology reports)
Loss of organ: 3.5 CM x 0.5 CM right side tongue.
Judgement: Will have full swallow and speech after full treatment cycle. So they told me that in your case we won't even call and consider it as "partial glossectomy". This will be a minor surgery which involves less than 1/4 of your tongue lose so we can;t call it "glossectomy". That's a good thing for me. Relieved me a lot after this visit. Honorable doctor I saw today, has treated stage 4 cancer of a famous chef without surgery with full perseverance of his tongue. The chef is cancer free since Dec 2007 and enjoying his life in 2013. BIG Smile.

So the doctor told me, "I appreciate your came here to see me because of chef's success story. Each case is different and there are certainly trade offs attached to each options you pick for your treatment. In your case tumor is local, visible, easily accessible and practically possible to perform surgical procedure without loss of entire tongue. This option will give you many a benefits, including natural saliva, taste, swallow and speech since we are not removing tip of your tongue, not even 1/3 of it."

Next Steps: I panned 4 opinions (Only from four different CCC) right before the treatment within the first 20 days of it was first detected. Dec 20 is the third stop at next CCC in PA. Dec 26 is fourth and final stop at CCC in PA only. The last team I'll see will be the team I'll work with for the treatment.

Thanks a bunch, hugs and have fun holidays. I'll have really exciting Christmas and new year too with my family right before the treatment kicks off. Game plan is, 6 months of break without speculation, kick the cancer's butt and go back to work with full family life with fun.

Marry XMas and Season's Greetings to all fellas here.