Hi All, just wondering if anyone here has had to have anything (doctor not sure what it is) removed from flap side and biopsied. I totally trust my oral surgeon, he is the best, he told me he doesn't think it is c. which of course, is wonderful news, but I am still nervous.....it just kind of popped up, they took it off yesterday and I go back in a week. Thanks, Carol

Carol,
aren't you being followed by your ENT or Head & Neck surgeon and getting regular checkups??

Absolutely...I see my Head and Neck Surgeon every 3 months, ENT the same.....this just kind of crept up on me, I might have bit down on it and not even realized it, it is numb. In fact, I still see my oncologist every 6 months although I am 4 years out now.....trust me....I don't play around anymore with this stuff! Carol

Carol,
believe it or not we run across a few here who fail to do their followups. Myself personally I would see an ENT or my H&N surgeon before I went to an oral surgeon. I bite myself all the time. I didn't realize that the flap is so close where you can bite it. I was told, when that was an option, that there were few nerves in the muscle tissue that make up the flap, so it's probably easy to bite and be unaware.

I am over 3 1/2 years out and I go every 4 months to the H&N surgeon and every 6 with the RO and the MO. The H&N guy's telling next year I will go every 6 months until 5 years and then annually asssuming, of course, that everything remains consistent.

Gary, I bite myself too. I had the flap revised last year because it was lifting a bit in the middle, but it has always seemed a little large, mine is about 1/2 of my tongue. Thanks for your input....Carol

Hey Gary,

Can you believe that I have NEVER heard from my radiation doctor after one visit with him when I was done. I called there a number of times as I assumed that I was supposed to see him like I see my ENT, but never got any response. Is this common?

Hey Carol,

I also bite my lip alot where it's numb and one side of my tongue has never felt the same since radiation so I bite it alot also. Let us know what you find out, fingers and toes crossed. I have a gut feeling it's nothing.
Minnie

Hi Carol
I just wanted to let you know we are thinking of you, and praying this is much ado about nothing.
Take care
Marica

Hey Minnie,
My RO is more agressive in some ways then the H&N Surgeon. She likes to put on a latex glove, go deep, in the throat and palpate the tumor bed. Then she usually has a resident poke around as well. She specializes in head & neck disease and IMRT. She's also outside of my HMO plan. so go figure. I just LOVE the tatse of latex (but then at I CAN taste it;-)

The H&N guy is more into a couple of tongue depressors, mirrors and palpating my neck for enlarged nodes.

I haven't been scoped since just post Tx. The RO also orders my annual MRI which my HMO dutifully obeys (they are read twice - by a radiologist at Kaiser and then again at UCSFCCC) and then they swap reports. She has me bring her a CDR of the MRI's so I always burn a copy for me too (like I know what I'm looking at). I can see why they pay these guys the big bucks. Around here even x-ray techs make 6 figures.

I've bitten myself so bad at times my lip looks like hamburger.

Thanks to all....I too am keeping fingers and toes crossed! Thanks again, Carol p.s. I tell you, he took a good bit off of my flap to biopsy, Thank God it is numb!