Well, so after 12 years out of treatment for tongue cancer, seems I'm heading back again. Sort of writing this to vent a bit I guess.

A little bit of history, if you check out my profile and posts you'll see some of it, was diagnosed late 2002 with squamous cell carcinoma on left side of my tongue, had that removed along with neck dissection, followed by chemo/rad. Early 2003 PET CT found it had spread to right side neck lymph nodes, another neck dissection, chemo/rad. All done in Hong Kong while I was living in south China.

Since then, a few adventures along the way, but after I got over the side effects of the chemo/rad x2 felt pretty good. Moved around a bit, China, to US, back to China, to Puerto Rico, East TN, Saint Louis, now living in California, about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara for the past year and a half.

Last March, started with a new dentist, and set of doctors, Dentist wanted me to see oral surgeon, just because, so I had a good exam by him, all seemed ok. He referred me to an ENT, just because, full exam by ENT, all seemed ok. Fast forward to a couple months ago, getting extra sensitive to spicy foods, etc. A few small white spots that would come and go causing some pain, but not anything obvious.. Made appt with GP, finally got into him last week, he sees white spots wants me checked by ENT. ENT (same office as before but a different doc)takes a look, not happy with what he sees. Apparently a bit of a mass going on that you really have to look at to see what it is. (hey, after the surgery from last time, plus rad and various episodes of dry mouth my tongue doesn't look normal even when it IS normal)

So ENT isn't happy, with that, does biopsy. And today the news comes, yep is cancer again.

And the wife and I are devastated. Doc is worried that since I've already had surgery I don't have a lot of tongue to spare with this one, he's worried about quality of life issues, referring me to a doc at UCLA. Probably the surgery and free flap reconstruction, then we'll see about any radiation/chemo. I've got to dig out my records from the Hong Kong hospital so they know what's been done. That stack of records is about an inch thick.

Trying to keep a positive attitude about it, the "gonna kick it's a** again" attitude, but this time sort of tough. Doc is in the process of scheduling a PET/CT, followed by an MRI, I guess see where it goes from there.

So, thanks for letting me vent, will keep all posted. Writing about this stuff tends to be good therapy for me.

SCC Tongue, stage IV diagnosed Sept, 2002, 1st radical neck dissection left side in Sept, followed by RAD/Chemo. Discovered spread to right side nodes March 2003, second radical neck dissection April, followed by more RAD/Chemo.