Surgery

Welcome to the forum where you will find lots of kindness and support especially from those who give so much of their time.

My diagnosis was the same as you describe and I too had surgery together with sentinel lymph node removal.

When the scan results were available I was given a date to see the surgeon quickly and my surgery was about 10 days later. I only needed 1 night in hospital after the surgery but didn’t have a full neck dissection so that could affect the length of the stay.

i am almost exactly 2 years post surgery and did not need any other treatment. I very much hope this will be the same for you. 
hopefully you will get a date to see the surgeon soon but my experience was that once in the system things moved quickly.

Take care of yourself and try not too worry to much x

Thank you so much for replying so quickly. I would assume it would be quick but read somewhere it can take months, which is worrying when time is of the essence with cancer I believed. That’s great it was only one night in hospital, feels me with hope. Pleased to hear you didn’t need any further treatment x

Countryside5328f6 said:

I was diagnosed with tongue cancer last week

HI, welcome to the community

I can't help with your cancer as mine was different to yours,I suspect. Tongue cancer in young folk seems to follow a different trajectory to the type that older folk get in the tonsil tissue in the tongue and there aren't many here. There is a good group you could look at called YOUNG TONGUES  They have an active social media page 

Do stay with us though, there is lots of experience here with neck dissections and radiotherapy (hopefully it sounds like you won't need it if they find no cancer in your nodes)

Thank you!!. This info is great to know. Definitely, this forum is great, balanced and factual. I'm more of a passive observer but wanted to say thank you.

Tonsil Cancer T4 N1 M0 hpv+

52 mum of a 12 & 15 year old.

Thinking of you Countryside 

Hi

I have had 2 neck dissections and both times only had a single night in hospital.  That was because I did not drain much fluid after the operations and the drains were out quickly - which seems to be the limiting factor on discharge times.

I was scheduled to have a tumour removed from my tongue and they had forecast a few nights in hospital.  Like you it was not of a size to require rebuilding of my tongue.  However, when they opened up my tongue the tumour had gone so the closed up and sent me home the same day!

Most of my surgeries have been within a space of a few weeks (Covid lockdowns delayed some of mine) and my hospital(s) were quick to diary in the surgery.

Alas I can't tell you what the tongue surgery will be like - although they have cut it open many time looking for tumours, but in those cases the reality was I've not noticed the after effects of surgery.  The dissection sounds horrible, but again the reality is that around 14 days after surgery you will be fighting fit.  In my case they were really good at hiding the scar in a fold in my neck and you have to really look to see it.  There may be some longer lasting side effects for shoulder movement etc, but generally time is a great healer.

Hopefully there will be good margins in the pathology post surgery and you won't need any further treatment.

Good luck and stay with us for support as you go through treatment.

Good evening, Countryside5328f6. It's good news that they caught it early, and it's quite small. Also, age is on your side; all of this makes recovery quicker in most cases. Once they get the scan results back, they will have a meeting to discuss everything and then set a date for your operation. Hopefully, it will be done asap. Dont forget you can get help in the form of benefits, you can get advice from Macmillan as they have trained experts who know which ones you are entitled to. Hope all goes well, take care.

                                                                                Chris x