I am a newly diagnosed patient. About a month ago the dental hygienist discovered a white spot on the bottom of my tongue. They had me return in two weeks and when it had not yet healed referred me to an oral surgeon who biopsied the lesion. He lest a little bit of the margin in case it was cancer so that anyone he referred me to would know where it was.

One week later (Monday) I got the news. It is a well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma that is one mm thick. They have referred me to a head and neck surgeon that I will see at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle in about 3 hours.

All of this is really overwhelming me. I am wondering if anybody has experience with Swedish or is there a better facility in western Washington?

What kind of tests can I expect ? How worried should I be ?

Dear Another Journey,

Welcome to OCF. Glad you reached out. Tons of wonderful people here that want to help.

The good news is you caught this very early. Oral cancer is much easier to treat when caught early. You are treatable and now also aware so you will be able to stay on top of this. Your dentist and medical team did all the right things up front quickly.

Cancer is a scary, fickle beast but they know how to attack it.

Mine was caught late (stage 4) so I went through major surgery, radiation, and many months of recovery three years ago. I have been back to full bore life for over 2 years. It was a hard rode but I am better for it. I learned to be more grateful for every day and found a faith I never could before.

You can do this. Keep asking lots of questions of your medical team. I found information helped me deal with it. I recommend a book called "Anticancer". It is packed with all kinds of details and research, data, etc.

Stay safe and keep the faith. Keep us up to date and sending more prayers.

Nels

Thank you so much for your reply. I am scheduled for the surgery on April 11. My worst concern at this point is that I will wake up from the surgery and they will have removed most of my tongue. The surgery paperwork I have been provided indicated that I am undergoing a partial glasectomy. Details are that it is less than half the tongue. The surgeon explained that even if they remove a cubic mm it is still called that. Is there any input anyone can provide on this ?

I am also very concerned that the surgeon has indicated that scans are not needed. I hear this from him and others. I keep hearing that this is an early diagnosis and that is good news.

And of course I am hyper vigilant about anything on my tongue now. I think I bit my tongue yesterday when I was eating and of course now I have a little pain. In my mind the cancer has spread. This is how worried I am.