There's a morning show that has been on here since 1952, the Today Show. It has its ups and downs as far as popularity goes, but it has become a part of the culture, good or bad.

This morning there was an interview with a young woman who is in remission from tongue cancer. It's a message for the young but gives hope to us all.

Today Show

If I can find a link to the show that's on tonight, I'll post it.

Mimi

Darn: Because this is US TV you've got to endure a teeth whitening commercial first. Sorry! It doesn't last too awfully long.

Thanks for posting this Mimi.

The interviewee was certainly inspirational for me as a fellow young tongue cancer patient. I wonder what surgery she had as her speech was absolutely perfect and her neck dissection scar was invisible. I don't know how many years down the line she is. It has been two years for me and I am still quite conscious of my scar and speech. Did anyone else here have surgery on their tongue and recover perfect speech?

By the way, I am helping out with the walk next week and am looking forward to meeting lots of you.

S

Thanks for the posting, Mimi - truly inspirational.

Susana, I was diagnosed with tongue cancer 4 1/2 years ago and my speech is almost normal. It wavers a little if I have a bad cold or am very tired. For a long time I found holding a lengthy conversation difficult and had to sip water every couple of minutes, but now I can chat for hours!I've noticed significant improvement in speech and saliva production over the last 18 months - 3 years post treatment - and I know there are others on here whose symptoms have continued to improve years after surgery and radiotherapy. What we've been through is major and no-one can predict how long it can take the body to heal itself.
Sheila

Susana,

There's a user Susan and Stephen (Stephen is the tongue cancer patient) who went back to teaching some months ago with great success with his speech.

I haven't seen them on the board for quite a while but they're very gracious as far as answering questions goes and enjoy helping.

Find the profile and send a PM, then let us know the response!

Take care,

Mimi

Oh, Susana

Sorry--I couldn't resist, and I'm sure you've NEVER heard that before.

Anyway, yes, I'm a tongue cancer survivor and I speak every bit as clearly now as I did before with the same caveats that Sheila mentioned. I had a hemiglossectomy with free flap resection in February '05. I was lucky, though, and didn't need rt or chemo (some of us do, some of us don't) or even speech therapy.

This bunch of folks are as alike as they are different and they're always willing to help and advise.

I hope everything continues to go well.

Julia (and Flappy the tongue flap)