OK all, I'm probably just ultra-sensitive to things in my mouth these days (tongue cancer diagnosis in October, surgery to remove SCC tumor followed by 30 IMRT treatments into mid-January).

But a few days ago, I noticed three tiny white bumps on the right, front tip of my tongue (my tumor was on the left side, and more toward the side and back). I'm thinking it's just an infection or somehow I've aggrivated my tongue pretty good because I'm just now starting to eat "real" food again, and I'm probably overdoing it with meatballs and pizza and friend fish. But of course, I'm a little nervous of white bumps on my tongue considering all I've been through these past few months.

I saw my oral surgeon today who said without hesitation "Oh, you just have some ulcers on your tongue." But then he proceeded to tell me that if it doesn't heal in a few weeks and if the antibiotics he was going to prescribe didn't help, then he would do a biopsy on it... Not very convincing that this isn't something I should worry about... He also said my cancer "was low on the list" the first time I saw him about my original ulcer back in September-October...

Anyway, I guess I'm on edge about the "R" word (recurrence) and was wondering if anyone else had the same kinds of things happen on their tongue post-radiation, especially when trying to test the mouth with more coarse foods... Thanks for any help you can provide (at least my constipation is taken care of for now, Gary and Minnie... hehe wink )

Eric

Tongue cancer (SCC), diagnosed Oct. 2003 (T2 N0 M0). Surgery to remove tumor. IMRT Radiation 30x in Dec 2003 - Jan. 2004. Recurrence lymph node - radical neck dissection June 2004. Second round of rad/chemo treatments ended Sept. 2004.