Hello all,

I am sitting here at the hotel connected to the MD Anderson cancer center in Houston. I have been reading your posts, so thought I would give our story. My husband, Brad, is 36 years old. He was diagnosed in April 06 with tongue cancer. He had 1/3 of his tongue removed in May 06. He had both radiation and chemo during the summer for 8 weeks. During this time a small spot on his neck was discovered to be cancer. After the treatment, we had a petscan in Sept 06. All was clear. Then in December 06, we had another one. It showed the cancer had returned. We came to MD Anderson this time after being treated in Arizona the first time around. We have been here for 4 weeks now. He had surgery on Feb 2nd 07, removing 80% of his tongue. It was reconstructed using a skin graft from his thigh. He had a radical neck dissection on both sides. He had a trach placed due to the swelling. It was awful. He is just now trying to recover. He has a feeding tube. We are currently waiting to get a swallow test next week to see if he can begin eating pureed foods. He speaks pretty well considering what he has been through. He will be having speech therapy here in the next few weeks. We met with the oncologist today. He is recommending a 6 week chemo plan as a follow up to the surgery. It seems like this will never end! My husband has never been a smoker or drinker. So, he doesn't fit the norm. After having said all of this, we are so glad to be here at this center. The staff is wonderful! We just hope that when all is said and done, that it won't re-occur again. Thanks for listening.

Angela