My husband had oral cancer surgery 28 months ago to remove a lump from his tongue. He also had lymph nodes removed from his neck. He had no chemo or radiation. In the past 8 weeks he has lost 26 lbs, started to complain of swelling where his lymph nodes were removed and he can't sleep and is slurring his speech occasionally. Because of the lack of speech he has been to the ER 3x in one week finally getting different meds each time. Now they have put him in a state run mental hospital because they say they are afraid he will hurt himself. Can cancer metastasize to the brain and can personality disorders? Could it be he is not getting enough O2 because of the swelling in his neck? He is like himself until he tries to go to sleep, he sleeps 2 hours and wakes up in a panic. Another cancer wife mentioned this was how her husband was because of lack of oxygen, please help!!!!

Hi Kim

I'm so sorry to read about the difficulties you and your husband are having.

Cancer can metastasize anywhere in the body (evil, opportunistic, sumbich disease just won't take SCRAM for an answer). Most of us have scans and/or x-rays on a regular basis to see what new, undesirable developments there might be. Have you discussed this with his doctors? Has he had regular follow-up appointments? If not, PLEASE contact them as soon as humanly possible.

I wish I were better able to answer your questions.

Let us know how you get on.

Julia

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Julia,

I have seen a few stories on the news lately where people had different cancers that caused them to seem nerotic and people thought they were crazy. It had to do with the blood flow to the tumor area taking away from blood flow to the brain. So I would say it is possible anything is possible. So do speak to his doctors to do a scan of him. Believe me the sooner the better. I have had my oral cancer mastasize twice in the past 6 months. And have not gotten completely rid of the tumors yet.

Pam

Oral cancer can indeed spread to the brain although it does tend to go down rather than up.This scenario seems very extreme and a bit unforgiving,has he had scans and seen his oncologist?