Hi Dizz_zzey,

I too am very new to the forum and just navigating my way around the site. I just wanted to let you know I am also based in the Uk (Birmingham) and was diagnosed with stage 3 OC in February this year. I turned 34 just after I had surgery, I used to smoke but quit some time ago and wasn’t a heavy drinker and being a woman I wasn’t your stereotypical candidate for oral cancer (although i think nowadays it’s becoming more and more common)

I had 2/3s of my tongue removed and reconstructed using a skin graft from my left thigh. Initially they wanted to do the skin graft from one of my forearms but I’m a goldsmith so my hands are my life and I couldn’t afford to risk losing all feeling in my thumb.

I had a full radical neck dissection to remove all my lymph nodes, one of which had become problematic and was matted to my jugular vein. They had to remove a section of the vein, retie it and in doing so unfortunately damaged my nerve. This has caused me a few problems and I’m on a special nerve medication because of it.

I also had 7 teeth removed for the same reasons you have mentioned - they did this at the same time as the surgery and for some reason I hadn’t prepared myself mentally for this so that was what upset me the most when i came round in ICU - luckily you can hardly notice it now when i speak.

I had a tracheotomy for nearly two weeks and was in hospital for 2 1/2 weeks, I would have gotten out quicker if i hadn’t caught an infection in one of the drain sites on my neck so needed an IV course of antibiotics to fix that.

Luckily for me, the cancer hadn’t spread any further that this one node which spared me having to have chemotherapy. I did have to have 6 weeks of 30 sessions of radiotherapy which was tough but with lots of support from family and friends manageable.

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions at all or would just like to speak to someone in UK who’s in the same boat as you will be.