Hello! I was so encouraged by Kate Brown’s story that I wanted to know more about how others are coping with this life changing diagnosis and treatment. The cancer on the bottom of my tongue was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago. I had a partial glossectomy on Sep 10, 2019.

I’ve never smoked or chewed tobacco. Therefore, it was hard to diagnose by my local oral surgeons and ENT doctors. In fact, the local ENT doctor biopsy good tissue and told me I was going to be fine. I went through this for about a year and finally My primary care doctor recommended that I get another opinion outside of Tallahassee. I went to Shands hospital in Gainesville, Fl and they performed another biopsy and it came back stage one squamous carcinoma.

A team of surgeons Removed about a third of my tongue, took a vein, artery and tissue from my left wrist and repaired my tongue. I also had some lymph nodes removed and. advanced Doppler technology that Monitored the blood flow through the artery and vein and tissue in my tongue. The surgeons went in through my neck To reattach the new vein and artery. I passed the swallow test early and they were able to remove the feeding tube early before I went home. My Trach Hasn’t closed up quite yet.

I passed the swallow test postoperative and allowed to transition off of a purée diet. Of course, I’m struggling with that. The really good news, is that I am able to compose this introduction by using voice recognition! So, I am encouraged. Looking forward to sharing and learning from folks with similar experiences.