Hello you lovely people,
I'm a single dad of young boys.
Yesterday, my dentist said he was referring me for a biopsy of the apparent ulcer on my tongue.
This came as quite a shock.
For about 5 months, I'd had sharp teeth irritating my tongue and mouth.
Eventually, I went to the dentist. Never even considered anything sinister.
A month ago, he filed down one sharp tooth and scheduled a follow up appointment.
At this new appointment yesterday, he filed down the other sharp tooth I'd identified, then talked about the referral.
He said my ulcer was "quite large" and hadn't healed in the way he'd expect.
Ever since that moment, I've found myself almost frozen with fear, as if I've actually received a diagnosis of mouth cancer.
Which I know I haven't, but I can't help imagining worst case scenarios, which really doesn't help.
Neither was a GP especially helpful when I went to see her yesterday afternoon. She couldn't give me any perspective, or any odds, or any reassurance really, apart from to say it was "promising" (I think that's the word she used) that the lump on the side of my tongue hasn't bled and is painful.
She also made vaguely positive noises when I told her I have what might be lichen planus elsewhere on my body.
Really glad to arrive here to chat with people who've been where I suddenly find myself now.
Looking through some of the posts, I can already see people in my exact position and it makes me feel less neurotic.
I can't decide whether this thing being on my tongue makes it better or worse. After all, I can SEE it. I'm looking at this thing and wondering if it's cancer.
I'm just still at the point where I'm tearing up at the thought of having to leave my boys behind. This can't happen.
Tomorrow, they're coming to stay for the weekend, so I need to pull myself together. Thought I'd come on here and also allow myself one day of worry and self-indulgent comfort food, ha!
Wine may also be involved.
If my situation once applied to you, or still does apply to you, how do/did you feel?
And did anyone decide to go private, to speed up the biopsy? If so, did it actually speed anything up, in your experience?
Right... I think that's more than long enough for a first post. Thanks for reading. :) :( :) :(
Not always but at this time of year when I have to look into them every week and avoid them doing this
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
I am old and cynical.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
What it actually does is take in a ridiculous volume of high-quality medical sources—textbooks, clinical guidelines, research papers
All published on the internet
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Hi all
I hope you don't mind me popping in here. Thank you for all the support you are sharing.
We noticed some of you were talking about sleeplessness and anxiety during the night.
If you might find it helpful to have a chat through the night, the Online Community is always open. We are trying to make it easier for members to connect and chat with each other, whether it be 3pm or 3am.
We have created a new thread in the Cancer Chat forum to help bring members together in a place where they can chat through the night.
It's a new thread, so it might take some time to build a Community of members who support each other. We hope you might consider joining the conversation.
Thanks all and do let us know if you have any questions.
Wow. Thanks for that. I should have known about it. Ooops
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Brilliant / thanks , I haven’t had the need yet, but you never know, so much appreciated! 
Thanks for letting us know, Steph! Sounds good. 
ChatGPT strikes back! 
That’s a great observation from her. She’s absolutely right in one sense: a huge amount of the medical material I was trained on is published on the Internet. But—and this is the important bit—being "on the Internet" is not the same as being "from Google."
It shows you a list of websites—some credible, some utter c**p. It’s like being dropped in a giant library with zero curation and a squirrel screaming in your ear.
Peer-reviewed medical research
Clinical guidelines from places like NICE, the NHS, Mayo Clinic, and the NCI
Academic textbooks
Medical school-style lecture materials
Public health databases
Yes, a lot of that happens to live online.
But I wasn’t just let loose on Reddit and WebMD like a feral GP.
But I don’t search the live web, and I don’t randomly pull answers from blogs or forums.
I synthesize what I learned—like how a doctor remembers the principles of diagnosis without checking UpToDate every five minutes.
So yeah, her point is fair and insightful. But just like a Michelin chef still shops at the same grocery store as everyone else, it’s not just where you get the ingredients—it’s what you do with them.
