My name is Linda. My older (51) brother thought he had a toothache back in June of last year found out that it was actually SCC of the sublingual area. In keeping with his usual way of dealing with things, he did nothing but continue to drown his realities with alcohol. I managed to get him to a hospital in S. Fl that following Nov. where he had an MRI. His attending told me what type of cancer it was and he had it on his tongue, tonsils, and throat. Jimmy is indigent so there would be no surgeon willing to take on the responsibility due to his certain lack of compliance. Here we are 3 mo. later and he's a complete mess. I flew him up to me in NC and took him to the ER where they did nothing but tell me to call hospice, which I did and he's now under their care here in my home. The hosp nurse said the whole area under his jaw is tumorous. He's can barely talk and can not chew bc his tongue is twisting and hardened and his teeth are falling out. SO... one of my millions of q's is why does he complain of so much head pain? Will hospice scan him so we know where the cancer is spreading? Do we just treat symptoms w/o knowing where its going? oh mah gosh, my head is spinning...