Hi everyone,

I am James. I live in California. I am 35 will be 36 next week.

A little backstory. 4-5 months ago my tongue was tender on one side. I looked and it had three pea sized white dots. Soon this formed into a white lesion that was very tender. I went to the doctor and he referred me to a EMT doctor. He first gave me antibiotics to see if that would help. It didn't change or help anything. So he then did a biopsy on my tongue's lesion. He than ended up getting a 2nd opinion on the sample after the first testing. Then today he called me. He said the tissue sample tested was malignant. I was just diagnosed with tongue cancer. He said that it seemed confined to that area of the tongue. Doesn't seem to have spread. He said surgery is needed but he couldn't do the surgery himself so he referred me to the next best surgeon. I have to schedule an appointment and see where we go from there.

I am beyond scared. I never smoked. I never drank a lot of alcohol. I am overweight and have type 2 diabetes. I know I am not diagnosed but I do have social anxiety. I don't think the real impact has hit me completely yet. I feel like I am in a nightmare dream. I want to stay positive. I want to live as much as possible. Is there anyone who has survived tongue cancer? If yes, what is your advice? Did you fully have to change your lifestyle? Any words of encouragement?

I am having a bit of problem. I know my appointment is April 3rd. I am getting scared as to what I should and shouldn't be eating. I don't want to make things worst by eating something that can make the cancer activate more or become worst. If that makes any sense. I wanted to eat a can of spaghetti-ohs but I am scared it will do more damage.

Hello James and I am so sorry that you find yourself here among us cancer folks. I would not worry about eating spagettios. Eat whatever! We who get tongue cancer DID NOT CAUSE our cancer with what we've ate.

I had to almost chuckle when you said does anyone survive tongue cancer. I along with soooo many others are surviving tongue cancer.

Your story sounds rather similar to mine. I had a lesion on the underside of my 'oral' tongue and the biopsy came back positive for squamous cell carcinoma and the journey began from there. I had just turned 40 10 days prior and had never smoked and was only an occasional drinker.

ChristineB will come along and give you some good words of advice but I can tell you that you have found yourself in the right place for support from people who are living through a cancer diagnosis. I haven't posted much through my journey but I have read countless posts and learned a lot of what to expect which is probably the most important aspect. The more we know, the less we can be scared of the unknown!