Just wanted to post quickly before I leave work. Everything is fine. I guess we are just being overly paranoid and the ENT says its healing really well and there is nothing that looks or feels even remotely like cancer in her mouth right now. Whew! what a relief.

A strange thing though is that she had this small lump about the size of an eraser appear on her upper arm and she sees a dermatologist every couple months so she removed it about 2 weeks ago and the biopsy came back today positive for squamous cell cancer. Both the dermatologist and her ENT say this is not related to the cancer in her mouth but the dermatologist is going to do a small surgery on the area they removed the lump to make sure they got everything. Has anybody ever heard of this? The ENT says not to worry its fairly common in fair haired light eyed people who spend a lot of time in the sun. We are not worried about it because nobody else is.

Thanks again for all the support.

PS. Candace my mom told me she has been drinking a lot of water and things do appear to be getting better!

Hi Dani,
I'm so happy your moms check up was good where her mouth is concerned. There was one thing about your post that kind of bothered me though, I hate seeing the words "not worried" and "cancer" used in the same paragraph. The new finding on your mothers arm may very well be nothing to worry about AT A LATER DATE. But for right now, until you all know all the facts, don't let the doctors take it so lightly.
I would never, ever try to scare you Dani but I would feel horrible for you if months down the road what the doctors said was nothing to worry about becomes a big deal for your family. I hope this doesn't upset you. I have a friend whose father just had minor surgery for squamous cell on his back, turned out to be NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. But his doctors didn't say that until they found out how deep it was, etc.
Take care,
Minnie

Minnie,

I didn't mean to sound so non-chalant about it and when I go back and re-read it does sound like we are blowing it off. I think the reason why it is not being taken all that seriously is because it just popped up like 3 days before she had it removed. The biopsy took 2 weeks and now they just want to go back in and make sure they got it all. I know that cancer should never be taken lightly no matter where it is. My grandfather (my mom's dad) died from melanoma he had a mole on his back that by the time they removed it, it was the size of a softball and the doctors never seemed concerned with this growing mole until it took over one quarter of his back.
We are concerned about this new cancer but the surgery is not that extensive and it will not require her to be in the hospital or anything.

I think we are so relieved that there is nothing wrong in her mouth that this is very small by comparison. Knowing that the two are not related is also a relief.

Take Care,
Dani

I'm glad to hear that Dani. Sorry if I came across as critical.
Happy 1st Birthday to Keeley!
Minnie

in reference to food eating:
I too find that some days I can eat certain foods, and then days later have trouble chewing, or no interest in eating that same sort of food. Some days I want only soft or liquid foods, on other days, I'll chew meat, etc.