All this stuff is like a two edge sword. We want our radiation/chemo to start ASAP, but the docs need to give us a little time for surgery to heal. My wait from surgery to rads was 6 weeks for a tonsilectomy. I thought that was an eternity as my mouth/throat felt fine 2 weeks post surgery, so I was climbing the walls for 4 weeks waiting.

That's when you need lots of positive things to keep your mind occupied, the good books to read, the good movies to watch, the friends to have that extra long cup of coffee with (hot drinks did and still do make my throat feel better, and they help get rid of the rope mucous, a new friend you probably haven't met yet).

That time is also a good time to get on the website and start educating yourself about oral cancer. The forum does a great job of keeping you in contact with people of similar ilk, but the website is where the really good technical and medical information lives, things that you will want to know.

It may be a little early to tell you this, but for others it won't be. Sooner or later you will put all this together in your mind and realize that lots of people who have gone before you stuck around after their treatment was over so they could help the newbies just now joining the family. They didn't have to stick around, they chose too.

Others helped me, so I stay to help others, kind of the pay it forward concept from that old movie. When I was diagnosed all I wanted to know about was tonsil cancer and it's treatment and survivability etc. etc. But now trying to help others I need to learn about all the other forms of oral cancer. It's easy to greet new members and give them that initial warm fuzzy and we're all here to help you feeling, the thing we need the most at the beginning. It's much harder to answer their questions about a diagnosis different from your own.

Sorry for being so wordy. You may be the stick around after type, and maybe not. Regardless of which you choose the website has information that will help you ... and it will do a good job of filling the time between surgery and treatment.

Just don't let it depress you. Keep it at arms length.

Tony

Tony, 69, non-smoker, aerobatics pilot, bridge player/teacher, avid dancer (ballroom, latin, swing, country)

09/13 SCC, HPV 16, tonsillectomy, T2N0.
11/13 start rads, no chemo
12/13 taste gone, dry mouth,
02/14 hair slowly returning
05/14 taste the same, dry sinuses, irrigation helps.
01/15 food taste about 60% returned, dry sinuses are worse in winter.
12/20 no more sinus problems, taste pretty good