I don't know if you all remember me. I lost my mother 11-4-06 to oral cancer on her tongue, 71yrs old. Non smoker-drinker. You can look up my past posts. She had surgery with clean margins and radiation, IMRT. Was doing well.
Started having symptoms the dr. said was from radiation side effects. Then my dad had a heart
attack. Went to my mom's one day called the squad cause she was having trouble breathing,
emergency trach put in, 2 days later found out cancer spread and was obstructing her airway and 10 days later she died.
My brother 41yrs has just been diagnosed with oral cancer as well. Just got results today. Went to ENT did biopsies of side of tongue and flour of mouth, swollen lymph nodes as well. Had CT scan. I have not seen the reports yet. The ENT dr. says that it is not related to my mothers cancer. That this type of cancer is not hereditary. IS THIS TRUE OR NOT.
It has been 7 months since my mom died and we are all still grieving.
The ENT dr. said to him that he just got the bad luck of the draw.
My whole entire family is in a state of shock.
How could this happen again. He does not smoke, occassional drinker and chewed years ago, not sure how long.
To top it all off, my dad just found out he has an abdominal aneurysm, needs surgery within the next 4 weeks.
We are going to see another dr. in cleveland ohio tomorrow at the comprehensive cancer center in cleveland. The ENT that did the biopsies and ct scan mentioned he was stage 2 and this was treatable.
How does the staging work, how do they know for sure if the swollen lymph nodes are indeed cancer.I think he has 3 of them.
I am scared to death at this point. I am trying to stay positive for my brother, I will be taking him to the dr. tommorrow.
The ent dr. that did biopsies, mentioned surgery and radiation.
I'm not sure how soon they will do surgery.
He just went today to the local ENT and they got my brother set up the next day to go see the
Cancer otolarngologist. Thats his title.
What about chemo, if it spread into the lymph nodes, won't he need chemo?????

Anybody with information on the carnation drinks,
the 560calorie ones, where and how can I get some ordered.
The dr. we are seeing is at the university hospital, Ireland cancer center. I hope this is one of the comprehensive cancer centers.

Thanks for listening and any information would be greatly appreciated.
My biggest question I want answered is, is this cancer hereditary or not.
At this point my brother is a total wreck, they have him vicodin script and resterol for sleep.
He's not having much pain, just when he eats sometimes and his throat is a little sore.
The Ent dr. here put the light scope down to look in his throat area and said everything looked good in his throat. I don't understand why he is having a sore throat. Could it be nerves.

Michelle