I hope someone here with more experience than me can answer this question-when squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue reoccurs , does it usually come back in the same place or somewhere different. I had surgery and a radical modified neck dissection a little over 3 months ago, and am now having headaches and ear pain intermittently on that same side. I have a appointment with my surgeon tomorrow and am praying for good news telling me it is nothing, but of course am scared and worried to death. Trying to stay positive however. Any info anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much and prayers to you all for blessings and better days ahead.
Camille

Im sorry I didnt see this til now, Camille. A recurrence can pop up any place in your body. The first recurrence I had in 2008, the new tumor was almost the exact same site as my original tumor. It was only a teeny tiny white dot, about the size of the head of a pin. Having a recurrence is not as common as most people think. Most patients do not have recurrences, they go thru it once, get treated, recover and move on with their lives.

Best wishes with this and please let us know how you make out.

Except when the ENT says something like -"now thanks not at all what I expected !"

Yes they can occur anywhere, however, I seem to recall my ENT telling me after completing my first treatments that oral cancers in younger people do tend to reoccur and "reoccur with a vengeance" between 15 to 20 years after the first. He didn't have any concrete evidence or studies, it was just from his personal experience. The second diagnosis may be a result from the initial treatment......again, he was speaking from his experience only. We were told to watch the same site in the mouth, brain, throat and lungs in particular.

(I really hated proving him right)

Good Luck

Hi Christine,
Thanks for responding to my post. I had my appointment yesterday with my surgeon and he said my tongue, ear , throat and neck all looked normal. He examined me and said he saw nothing or felt nothing unusual. He is going to schedule me for another PET scan which he explained to me is normal procedure to do about 3-4 months out from surgery. Of course this has increased my worry and stress even more, and I'm sure I will stress till I have it done and know the results. My blood pressure was high yesterday (which it never is) but I don't know if that could be due to all the Advil and Tylenol I have been taking lately . Anyway now I guess my next step is another PET scan. Still having a slight headache today but thank goodness my ear hasn't hurt today. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Camille

bjmpittsburgh,
Thanks for answering to my post. I still don't understand or even comprehend how I ended up with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. I have never smoked a day in my life, have never used tobacco products, and don't drink. My tests all came back negative for HPV and he tested for 3 different strains of it. Guess it's just one of those things I will never know. When I was diagnosed with melanoma in 1985 I knew it was from my own stupidity by burning myself at the pool constantly and not using sunscreen ( we used baby oil with mecurocrome) and using tanning beds later. Everything wrong I could possibly do to my fair skin I did and reading all the risk factors later for melanoma I pretty much had them all (blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, burns easily, etc) but with this cancer I just don't know where this came from.
Camille

Camille, you arent alone in not having any risk factors but yet have developed OC. I believe its 5-7% of all OC patients have no known cause. There is so much that is not known about our disease and why some healthy younger adults get it while very similar others do not. I know that probably doesnt make you feel any better. But at least now you know you arent the only one.