Hi there, my name is Anne. My husband is 49 and has put off going to the dentist for about 7 years. He isn't scared of them and we have insurance, but didn't want to go. He burned under his tongue with a hot potato about 1.5 years ago but didn't tell me. He then developed scar tissue under (never told me). About a year ago he said he kept stretching the taut scar tissue (like a fool) and probably ruptured something. About two or three months ago he showed me a small hole under his tonge. He didn't want to go to the dentist. It got worse, still didn't want to go. I finally set up an appt for tomorrow before we left on vacation the week before the fourth of July at MY dentist and was going to make him go. I had to call while on vacation to ask for sooner (yesterday, 7:30am) as soon as we returned. In just one week while on vacation the area became two holes with a crack in a bias that formed between them. He also started complaining of molar pain on same side and that and his ear hurt more than the sores under this tongue. By Sun. eve he went to show me the same two holes which had now formed into a giant, at least quarter-sized sore, open, rough skin, muliple colors -- red, purple, white, and orange...? The dentist, at 7:30am yesterday, walked with his scrubs and scope and mask to the oral surgeon next door to his office, and kept walking back and forth to catch the surgeon as he came into work. He and his asst. even kept peeking out the window to catch him pulling in with his car and when he showed up, hand-delivered my husband to him. My husband had a biopsy on the sore on his tongue and new to me, and what I didn't know existed til yesterday, a popped out white spot on the floor of his mouth about two hours ago. I am scared. Compounding this is the fact that my husband struggles with issues from his former career (retired now at 49, 20 year public safety retirement) in corrections and probably a few concussions that he suffered in accidents over the years. He suffers from depression and anxiety, very bad seasonal affective disorder (long, cold winters and even on cloudy days in summer), and anger problems. He takes a mood stabilizer, antidepressant and even an antipsych. to calm him down. He cannot NOT take every dose of these or skip and doses of these meds. He went off meds cold turkey four years ago with bad results. I love him and we made a go of continuing our marriage after him being off meds once he got psych. treatment with meds and counseling. I am almost more afraid of him having to not take meds because of surgery, cancer, swallowing or gagging, post-op. It does not look good at all for him. It looks as though this is definitely cancer. Can anyone tell me how they continued any med after surgery (I mean, by the next day or second day after surgery)? I know it may have to be stopped for surgery but also, how far ahead do them make you stop meds (none are blood thinners?) Cold turkey of these meds is very bad, and for months afterwards. I know that there are liquid alternatives for at least two of the three meds, possibly also the last one (would have to call local compounding pharmacy and ask). Please help with any info about intake of prescriptions that have to be ammended to liquid formats or how long till no problems with swallowing pills (I know it differs from person to person). How do people take blood pressure pills, etc. if needed.

welcome to the club,

Even though it sounds a mess down there, you need to wait until the results come back. I know your minds gets to going wild and it looks so messed up it "must" be cancer but unless they told this to you, then you have to wait for the results.

Think about it, if the oral surgeon who deals with this every day was no able to communicate it being cancer, then you are far less qualified to decide that as well.

It is hard but take a few deep breaths and wait as calmly as possible.

don

Welcome to OCF! Try to relax and take things one step at a time.

Why do you think your husband would need to go off his meds? Did someone tell you this was necessary? There are many OC patients (that is IF he has OC) who take anxiety meds. With OC, depression is quite common and many are on meds for these things without incident. I dont see a reason why your husbands medications would not be ok. Of course this is up to his doctors. If his current meds wouldnt work out as they would interfere with something in his treatment schedule then there are many other types of meds that should be ok. But this is getting way ahead of things. First, the test results need to come back with what exactly is going on with your husbands mouth. I hope this will help him to realize putting his health concerns off is never a good idea. Things that dont get better on their own need a doctors help.

Many medications can be watered down or crushed up and put into applesauce. Some members use a feeding tube and take their medications thru the tube. But, again this info is only relevant if the biopsy comes back being cancerous. Let hope it turns out to be something that can easily be fixed.

By the way, speaking of stopping medications for surgery, Ive had more surgeries than I can count and Ive always taken my meds like normal. Please do yourself a big favor and stay busy while waiting the week for the test results to come back. Being worried and jumping ahead of yourself will only make you more upset, it wont change the results.

Best wishes!

Yes try and calm down and let's wait for the bio results which is the only way to be positive about oral cancer. You being upset ONLY makes everything worse and you know that so listen to yourself and stay calm and focused. Even if this turns out to be cancer you have found the best site in the world to help you both.

Hi!

I take anxiety meds. Swallowing them was a bit tough right after surgery, but the pain meds made me not care. I also talked to my psych and my two main ones can come in a liquid version. I expect I will have to give my pharmacy a bit of notice in case they have to order it, but I do not foresee any other issues. A bigger concern for me was med interaction. I am on a steady dose of Xanax, for pne, and it tends to be funky with other stuff. And my migraine med did not need to overlap with the after-surgery painkiller! But it really is okay. If you have a steady pharmacy you use, they should be able and willing to help answer questions when you get to needing specific info.

Hope your results come back soon!

Hi,

Listen to these folks. My husband was diagnosed recently. Things happen fast. Don't get ahead of yourself. Wait for biopsy results and the best advice I got from this forum was - don't listen to Dr Google. All medicines can be crushed except for extended release and they have other options for those.

I too hope your results come back soon. You will find many great answers to your questions here.

Gina