Hello everyone,
I am a 58 year old female living in North Carolina. I have never smoked, chewed, or drank alcohol and my last PAP was HPV negative. I have had leukoplakia for the last 5 years, worse off and on. In the last 6 months it has been really painful and I developed a lesion that looked like an ulcer on my right lateral tongue. After finally getting a referral and in to see an oral surgeon, he biopsied the lesion and I was diagnosed with SCC. I don't know the staging yet, I have a CT scan scheduled for 5 days from now. The physician thinks it is stage 1-2. I have been doing some reading and it seems that pain radiating into the ear is often indicative of the cancer having spread. I have had a lot of pain in my tongue and it does radiate up in to my ear, not always but often. Is that the experience of most, that pain into the ear means the cancer has spread? I'm also very concerned as the problems with the Corona virus are escalating and the hospital that the surgery would be done in is not a stand alone hospital for cancer. It seems very risky to me to get admitted and have surgery with the risk of getting infected with Covid-19. It hurts like heck to cough or sneeze now. I can't imagine having Covid after surgery! I think the surgeon is really good but I'm wondering if I should check out a stand alone cancer hospital as an alternative. It's not like I can just wait the many months it is going to take to get this virus under control in the US. Do you all have any advice or thoughts for me? Thanks for your time! I'm so glad I found this forum.