Dear friends

Sorry I have not had chance to post on the board for a while regarding my Mum.

Unfortunately following her second operation to remove an infected metal plate in her chin and to insert another one, my Mum has been in a lot of pain. At night she cannot sleep because the pain in her jaw is so bad.

Today we saw her consultant at the hospital (1month check up). He tells us that the pain she is having could be due to shortening of muscles in her mouth following the operation, which would explain why she cannot open her mouth very wide anymore. He also said she has got a condition called Sub Mucus Fibrosis inside her cheeks. He has prescribed her some tablets, which she needs to take one at night. He said hopefully these will help, but it will take about 4 weeks for them to take effect.

Anyway, my question is not regarding the above but of a different matter which is that the consultant told us that a chest xray which was taken in January just prior to my Mum's major oral surgery shows abnormality.

I am going out of my mind with worry as to what this could be? My Mum does not drink, does not smoke, she doesn't have a cough or breathing problems - touchwood so what could this abnormality be?

The hospital are going to send an appointment for a CT Scan soon. Could it be cancer?

Could it have travelled to her lungs? What else would show up as an abnormality on an Xray apart from Cancer?

Could it have spread from my Mum's original tongue cancer?

Mum had nearly all of her tongue removed and re-built in January 2003 and all her lymph nodes were removed. At the time she didn't have to have radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

Please help, my thoughts are running away with me.

God Bless

Kathleen