Linda,

Please, please, please do not put this off. I had several biopsies over many years showing dysplastic cells. I always had the areas removed, and it always came back "pre-cancerous". The last time it came back, I was pregnant and didn't want to bother with it. My last doctor had been an idiot (thought it was caused by biting my tongue....funny how it was nowhere near any teeth). I convinced myself it was the same old, same old, and would be a non-event.

If I would have dealt with it right away, it may have been dysplastic still. But, I let it go and by the time I forced myself back to a dentist who knew what to look for, it had made the transformation Brian discussed above and was now a full-blown stage 2, SCC. I was lucky it wasn't in my lymph nodes yet.

DO NOT let this go like I did. Believe me...it is well worth the aggravation, annoyance, time, and money to deal with it now. It's nothing compared with what you will have to deal with if it turns into something worse!!

Your last post reminds me of myself. If I could only go back to that time in my life and make that appointment....how much I would have saved myself and my family..... Please call.

Jennifer "Had my head firmly buried in sand" Gilliard :-)


Jennifer
Stage II (T2N0M0) SCC diag 4/21/05; partial glossectomy & selective neck dissection (good margins and lymyph nodes negative), jaw split, 1/3 of tongue removed, free flap from left forearm - 5/23/05; 42 years old at diagnosis