Kenny,
I am new to this whole new world as well...let me share my 2 cents with you. I am 30 good health, no history, non-smoker! I have perplexed everyone! Had SCC on my lateral tongue...my ENT who is VERY good took 1 look did the biopsy and had me on the books for a partial glossectomy the following week. 3 different patho's looked at my biopsy before declaring it cancer...Actually got the confirmation the night of my surgery! That was the course of action! My ENT said I might want to look into Rads but since my wife works for him I could "monitor" it very closely! Like David said this is a very aggressive type of cancer....with that said it took 2 months and it popped up in my left neck very very slightly! You could hardly feel it and it didnt show up that well on a CT so I had a PET. The PET showed a slight glow then it was a decision to either have Rads or a Neck Dissection. After seeing what the rads road was like I elected to have the neck dissection which was exactly 3 weeks ago, they cleaned out 5 nodes with all clean margins! HOWEVER! The infected node showed "extra capsular spread" which is basically as bad as the parineural invasion. So my ENT went from saying lets do the surgery and monitor it to you need to look seriously into radiation! Even though I am clear of all cancer with good clear margins I figured I better listen. I went to 2 local RO's who were both very hesitant to give me a straight course of action....I got Pissed off and went to 1 of the best Cancer centers in florida and saw a specialist! He didnt hesitate 1 bit! Said 33 treatments on left neck, 2/3 tongue and right neck with concurrent Cisplatin X 3! This guy has been at Moffitt for 19 years in fact Davidcpa did his treatment there! Not only did he give me his advice he will present my case to a tumor board on tuesday then call me with a final decision! I was trying my hardest to take the "easy road" then finally realized that 3-4 months of HELL is going to be better than having to chase and patch the rest of my life! Not saying that doing all this is not going to make it never come back but it greatly reduces any recurrence! I am still on the fence with the Chemo being that I did have the surgeries to remove everything but now I am totally convinced that Radiation is the right thing to do! Who knows maybe if I just had radiation after my glossectomy it might have never showed up in my neck.....Never know! But I do know I am done taking this lightly! I have my mind set and am ready for the battle! I am convinced that being prepared mentally is half the battle! Do your research, start preparing your body and mind and go get the radiation! Everybody I have spoken to (which has been a lot from florida to NY) has said to me...."TREAT THE PRIMARY"! I have heard that so many times I finally gave in! I will be starting my radiation in about 2 weeks....whether or not I chose to go with the concurrent chemo is still up in the air! Most likely I will have 2 more opinions on that as well! I am stubborn, hard headed and very very strong willed...which in 1 way is a good thing but accepting reality is more important. My advice and nobody has went back and forth with this more than me is get the damn radiation. I am going with this plan as well. Yea rads is a 1 shot treatment however hopefully if this ever comes back in that area they will have a new, improved better way of treating it! They have come so far in the past 5-10 yrs and its only going to get better! Live life to the fulliest everyday. This was a huge wake up call for me, I enjoy everyday and do not let the small petty stuff bother me anymore! Except for the fact that I am hearing now that they are going to replace my position when I go out for treatment.....ANYONE KNOW A GOOD LABOR LAW ATTORNEY IN SOUTH FLORIDA.....LOL! Keep your head up bro and let us know whats going on.