Hello everyone,

First, I must say that this is one of the best online forums I've encountered in my search for answers and support for oral cancer! I am SO glad I found you!

I was diagnosed with floor-of-mouth cancer in March 2020.

The primary tumor was surgically removed in April 2020, but I started to have swelling in one of my lymph nodes during the recovery period. The doctor did a biopsy of the L1 lymph node, and it was determined that the gland was cancerous.

In August 2020 a neck dissection was performed.They removed 33 lymph nodes; 3 were cancerous. More disturbing, the first lymph node had an extrusion. I think they called it "extra-capsular spread," meaning that the cancer was trying to spread beyond the lymph node, and a bit of it was clearly visible to the surgeon during the extraction.

Because they found this, the post-surgical plan changed from 6 weeks of radiation only, to 6 weeks of daily radiation and a weekly chemotherapy session as well.

Once I kind of absorbed the shock of that, I was also advised that I would need to see a speech therapist AND probably wouldn't be able to swallow, so a gastric feeding tube might be required.

Suddenly, the oral cancer that I thought had just shown up out of the blue, had in fact been there for quite a long time. This should really not have been a surprise to me, since I have smoked from the age of 12, only quitting during my pregnancies. At the age of 63, my past has finally caught up with me, and I am now paying the price. While I have finally quit cigarettes for good, I wish I would have had more respect for my body a lot sooner.

Anyhow, not being able to turn back time, I will do my best to live healthier going forward. Because I've had two back surgeries resulting in nerve damage, I have pretty much lain around eating, drinking, and smoking for the past 20 years - anything to reduce or distract myself from the neuropathic pain of my back injury. Unfortunately, despite numerous drugs, my chronic pain is barely tolerable, so having cancer on top of that kind of put me into a tailspin for a while.

But "Where there is life, there is hope," my mother used to always say. So I am hanging onto every word of wisdom she ever gave me, God bless her soul. Another phrase that gives me strength is "Don't give up 5 minutes before the miracle." In other words, get my act together and fight this for the sake of the wonderful future my husband and I envision. Both retired, we're looking at moving away from the big city to a house on a lake in a rural area. Of course, since we've both had oral cancer (yes, he's an ex-smoker too), we need to be close enough to major centres in order to have sufficient checkups, but neither of us wants our cancer diagnosis to follow us around like a sad puppy.

Again, thank you all for being here, providing your support and sharing your own experiences. Every little bit I read from you, the better I feel!

Blessings,

M