Hi. I'm new to the whole cancer issue and am looking for people with similar experiences that I may learn from. I'm a 44 year old male. I had a spot pop up on the right side of my tongue that hung around for several months. I thought it was just a normal canker sore but it wouldn't go away. My ENT noticed it when I was seeing him about sinus issues and was concerned about it. I just had surgery to remove it on 5/18 and the biopsy came back that it was cancer. I'm not sure how I ended up with oral cancer having never smoked or used any tobacco products in my life. Just hearing the diagnosis of cancer has scared me to death. I just saw my ENT again today for my surgical followup and he said the margins were clear on what they removed from my tongue so he's comfortable that they got it all from there. He also said they felt around my neck and lymph nodes and didn't feel any lumps. He's also ordering a full body PET scan to look for anything we can't see. I'm trying to think positive right now and focus on the results coming back clean. I guess one of my questions is if the PET scan comes back and the ENT says it's clear should I be comfortable with that? Is that a call that an ENT usually makes? Or should I seek a second opinion from an oncologist.....or will the PET scan have already been read by an oncologist to prepare the results for my ENT? If it Is clear should I expect to be screened periodically for the rest of my life?

Also possibly further complicating this cancer journey is the fact that I'm a heart patient as well, having been born with congenital heart defects and been through three heart surgeries. Not sure how that will come into play should I end up needing any further cancer treatments like radiation or chemo. Is it normal to have some form of additional treatment after surgical removal or is that only if the PET scan comes back showing cancer some where else?

I think that's it for now. I would love to find others with similar experiences that could give me some more insight into maybe what to expect. Thank you.