Im sorry we arent able to help you more with what you have going on. As you know our forum is made up of oral cancer patients/survivors and their caregivers. All of us are without a medical background, we simply are not qualified to give an opinion. The best resource should be your physician. They hopefully will be able to get to the bottom of what you have going on. You are NOT being dumb!!! You are upset (which is perfectly understandable), worried and would like to have some guidance to help you get to the bottom of what you have going on.

Let me explain something else thats important... Everyone is an individual and responds to things in their own unique way. No two people are the same! That said, take 5 people who are the same age, sex, from the same location, same type of employment and social habits, same weight, height, ethnicity, even the same hair color and eyes. Those 2 people on paper appear to be almost identical but... those 2 people are still individuals who have their very own body chemistry, heredity line, dna, etc. Its like comparing apples to oranges. Ive seen it time and time again with members who have the same tumor location, diagnosis, treatments, etc but those 2 patients will have polar opposite experiences with their reactions to treatments and recovery. Maybe this factors in as why all those clinical studies need so many participants? My guess would be they need to get a better understanding of every little thing and only can do so thru a large sampling of participants.

Since the newspaper/tabloid is where that info came from, Im sorry but its not a medically reliable source and I must remove the link. Without a medical degree, years of medical school, etc we would not be able to help you even when given an article and photos. We arent the right people to be able to figure your symptoms out with anything more than a guess. Posting a link to a tabloid's article and photos is against our ethics code. We are Health on the Net certified to only give correct and up to date medical advice, among other things. This is an honor for our site to be part of that group as its not an easy thing to earn their approval. Only reliable medical info can stay on our website.

Please let us know how you make out. If you have a friend or relative who can go along just to listen and take notes that would be a great benefit for you. Too often we focus on other things and our ears stop working during important appointments. Stay strong and good luck tomorrow!!!