Thank you so much for your response. You are so right about seeing progression in weeks and months. I actually am seeing improvements in small steps which amazes me. He was devastated after having part of his tongue removed but even more so when he was told that radiation was the next step of his journey.

My husband made it through six weeks of radiation without a feeding tube and I never thought he could do it. He has always been skinny and a ",picky" eater but he made it! Lots of milkshakes, supplements and other foods that were easy to chew. He lost some weight in the beginning but has stabilized at this point.

He is having a hard time finding a dentist at this point in time due to COVID. His original dentist misdiagnosed his cancer as a broken tooth irritating his tongue and then TMJ when he was having ear pain and grimacing. I think his dentist feels guilty about the misdiagnosis and just doesn't want to see him now. 🙁. In any case, his teeth are now shot and we will need to find a periodontist who specializes with cancer patients. The oncologist at Mayo said he will have to go to a hyperbaric chamber if he has his teeth removed due to the limited blood supply in his jaw after radiation.

My husband's biggest fear was losing his ability to speak. The surgeon at Mayo did an amazing job, (as did everyone else at the hospital), and called me in the middle of his surgery to tell me he removed minimal tissue and my husband's speech would be minimally affected. He has a little bit of a lisp but his recovery has been awesome. He is now concerned, (me too), that they will remove his tongue if the current CT results are truly showing cancer.

His follow-up with his ENT\Surgeon is scheduled on 2/9 and I pray that it truly is scar tissue. I assume the ENT will do a biopsy but really have no idea. I don't know how he, (or anyone with oral cancer), gets through this. It's one hell of a disease and you're all amazing.