Daisy,
I haven't heard anyone comment on the center you mentioned, but just make sure it is a comprehensive cancer center. I truly feel my brother would be alive today if we had gotten him into MD Anderson to start with. Instead we went with a hospital in a large city about 3 hours from us. They had a cancer division, but little experience with oral cancer we later found out. Once he started treatments there we had to wait until they were completed to get into MD Anderson. My brother first noticed the sore on his tongue in Aug. 2004 and did not tell us about it until April 2005 when we insisted he go to the doctor. His first biopsy came back negative - even though you could see the cancer in his mouth. The Dr. said, "This isn't right," and they had to do a second needle biopsy of the tongue. This almost killed my brother. I don't know about everyone else, but I think this was the MOST painful part of all the procedures and my brother had an extremely high pain tolerance. Anyway, he had to have his teeth removed and these doctors didn't even start treatments until late SEPTEMBER 2005. That was 5 MONTHS after diagnosis. It wasn't until the last day of JANUARY 2006 we were able to get him to MD Anderson for surgery. That was 9 MONTHS after his diagnosis and 17 MONTHS after he first noticed something. The moral of this story? DON'T LET THE DOCTORS DRAG THEIR FEET. They wrote my brother off as soon as they saw he was stage 4 with a 4cm growth and activity in the lymph nodes. They said surgery was impossible. They were WRONG. They said nothing could be done for him. They were WRONG. By the time we had the courage to buck the system and figure out they were just buying time waiting for him to die, it was too late. They didn't even tell him he was terminal. He was in his hosptial room in September, asking me about homes for sell in the country. He wanted to start looking and find his family a little place. He wanted me to start calling people (the nurse practictioner had told me earlier that day he just had 5 months to live.) I had to be the one to tell him they had given him a terminal diagnosis because I felt he had the right to know. His doctor and nurse practitioner were very angry with me. I still do not understand this and resent being the messenger. Please find a medical team who will put your husband FIRST and make sure surgery is not his best option. I can't hardly believe surgery can't be done. My brother's case was extremely advanced and the cancer had wrapped around the jaw bone and more. He had 90% of his tongue removed, the floor of his mouth, upper and lower jaw, part of his throat and lymph nodes - all at MD Anderson in a last ditch effort to save him - he had already had his lifetime max of radiation. I've always thought if he had had the option of surgery first our story might have had a different ending. I understand every case is different, just make sure you are being given all the options and the best care out there.
God bless and stay strong,
Tonya