Hello I have been searching for a place a group or individuals who are in the same position as I find myself. My family and friends are great but I would love to be able to talk to people who are unfortunately suffering from 'C' or have come through the process and survived. I was diagnoised with cancer last year in november which showed itself as a mouth ulcer - this didn't worry me at first but after a couple of months I became fed up with the pain and went to the dentists who sent me to the local hospital who then sent me to James Cooke where I met a surgeon called Col Bryant. He was wonderful, and after a biopsy he arranged to remove part of my tongue. Unfortunately there seemed to be no care once I was discharged and when I next saw him he made sure there was help on hand. I had monthly appointments with him then last month I became aware of a lump growing under my chin to cut a long story short after xrays further surgery was undertaken appaarently a radical neck dissection. This is where I am at the moment waiting for the histology to see whether any further treatment is required. I must admit I am scared but try to remain positive in front of everyone and only sob my heart out to my cats.
If anyone can help in any way I would be so grateful. But to everyone out there who is suffering I wish them lots of love and luck.

Hi Sukie
You have come to the right place for support, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to chew and empathy from plenty who have been where you are right now. It's a pretty scary place, isn't it and waiting for results is the pits. Good luck with it all, hang in there and post away to your hearts content ~ you'll get plenty of great support and advice from this forum.
Cheers from the Land Down Under
Deborah

Hello Sukie

It is normal to feel scared while waiting for results of the histology. I hope it gives you the all clear.

You will find our members very supportive. And don't worry about the spelling, it's been taken care of

Best wishes
Vinod

hello sukie and welcome
i too am six weeks post neck dissection and partial glossectomy and on tuesday i had results which were clear it was such a relief i can now just continue getting stronger everyday with the support of your doctors and this forum you will be fine love bev x

Hello Sukie,
You've come to the right place if you're after support.
You must be so anxious and scared right now & i'll keep everything crossed that this could be a false alarm!
Now you can sob your heart out to us... Cuz cats are faaaar too selfish to concern themselves with human matters
My 'evil' Siamese looked at me quite indignantly when ever i let the tears flow!
Seriously though,
I hope you fel you can turn to us when you need to get things off your chest!
Wishing you all the best,
Michelle

Hi Sukie
I've just answered your private message and advised you to post your story on this forum only to find you have just done so!
Love from James.

Hi Sukie, You're definately in the right place for support. I hope your results come back ok. Keep talking to the cats too,they might show an interest one day

Hi sukie guess you must be based in the North East
if you are attending james cook .i am in north yorkshire too if you need a chat just e- mail me and if i can help i will.

Good luck liz

Hi
Sukie
I know Col Bryant

He did not carry out surgery on me i went to Darlington under the wonderfull Mr Edge

i see them both at the Darlington clinics

I did go to James Cooke for RT

here if you need us

Best wishes
Dave and Sue

Hello everyone

Thank you so much for your fantastic support and kind words. I have not actually posted a reply because I was not sure how to! Im one of these people who faced with a computer looses every battle (Have already trying posting a reply and it dissappeared - not quite sure where to or why so if this is a duplicate I apologise).

I so wish I had found this site last year when I had initial surgery on my tongue I was so scared and alone and just to be able to of read about other peoples experiences would of been a help and the bonus of actually been able to contact someone who knew what I was going through would of saved me sinking into the deepest depression.

So rather than ramble on just another thank you to you all and will let you know the results due next week when I see the colonel - hopefully it will be good but if not I have my wonderful friends on this site to turn to for support and inspiration.

Take care love sukie

Good Luck for next week Sukie, it is all very daunting when you are going through this time. This is a wonderful site to come across and chat to these great people who can help you in so many ways. Don't be afraid to ask anything or vent all your fears we are here to help. I hope it will be good news for you.
Big Hugs Tracey

Hi Sukie,
I had a radical neck section (dissection?) in April 2006 followed by radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy (CT). all of which are now a memory and I am clear of symptoms, as at my last check up. (WHOO, HOO!) I am still suffering with the after-effects of the treatments.

One thing I did throughout the "ordeal" was to maintain a positive mental attitude, even when the worst of the radio and chemo were upon me, preferring to believe that I would have a good outcome from the process.

Everyone has their horror stories as have I but with my PMA (and my Buddhist faith) I kept such things in perspective. Damn it, it WAS hard from time to time, but not impossible.

Are you having RT &/or CT? they each have lasted little ways of telling you how important their. There are strategies to be employed to minimise these little reminders. Let the assembled group know and we can pass on some tips which will help you with your journey through the realm of 'C'. Do not discard the advice of the experts. However, doubtless someone on the site will have "been there done that" and can help with empathising your current (temporary) condition. These words of wisdom are oftentimes of more use than the official line, having been learned by experience.

You might find the following tips and resources to be of use:

Collected wisdom
(Tips and other things they may not tell you.)
- Do your homework
There is to be found simply tons of information on the web about cancer and the treatment. At least you will know what questions to ask the medicos.
When I was diagnosed I did extensive searching on the web. I downloaded like crazy, even articles which seemed of little significance at the time, several added shades of meaning later. (Example, an excellent scientific article about cisplatin that I didn’t understand when I first read it started to fall into place, a little – I am a cancer survivor not a pharmacologist!)

- Write down your medications
I found that it saved a great deal of time and bother if you prepare for hospital visits with copies of a printed list of all the medication, both prescribed and other tablets (vitamins etc), that you are taking. I added my social services number, my date of birth and medical insurance number to the schedule. Also that I am vegetarian, teetotal, an ex-smoker and a Buddhist, just for completeness) Time and again this saved a lot of effort.

- This won’t hurt
This can be translated as “This won’t hurt me. It will probably hurt you”.

- Just a little prick
This double entendre is chanted like a mantra by housemen, phlebotomists and other medical chaps. I think that they have been told that it reduces the painful side effects (on the victim) of the medical chap missing the vein for which he was aiming and carrying on in the mistaken belief that if he waggles the needle about not only will mysteriously he find a perfect vein, but that it will not hurt the victim either.
Wrong: he won’t and it will. At the start of my meeting with the embroiderers, they tried THREE sites to get a good vein for the line. Not my record by any regards. When I (finally) came round after surgery (and more surgery and yet more surgery ) I had a total of NINE lines in my arms: one in the inside of each of my elbows, three on the back of my left palm, two on the back of my right hand and one in each of wrists (bloody big bruise with one of them, they must've imported a semi tame gorilla to insert that bugger when I was 'out').

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- Loss of saliva
With mouth cancer there is a high probability of loss of saliva. My Consultant Oncologist passed on the tip that the most efficient way of stimulating the production of saliva was to chew sugarfree chewing gum. Simple and effective.

- All things are changeable: deep philosophical basis: (All things are changeable, nothing is constant// That is the law of Birth and Death.//Extinguishing the cycle of birth and death one enters the joy of nirvana (Buddhist proverb)

· All things are changeable: this means you!
Just after I started my course of radiotherapy, another lump, then two new lumps made themselves known to me. I mentioned this to one of the nursing staff who went into action straight away. Suddenly everyone knew and medicos were flying around like, well, whatever flies around. That was on a Wednesday morning. By the Friday I had had a CT scan and my radiotherapy prescription had been amended to take out the new, unwelcome visitors.

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Web resources
apart from this site, there are some others which you might like to dive into for background information. These are some the best. There are many, many others.

· Irish Cancer Society (http://www. cancer. ie/) useful, comprehensive, site for cancer sufferers primarily in Ireland, but of general application. Extensive glossary.

· CancerbackupUK (http://www. cancerbacup. org. uk/Home) excellent source of information and advice. Extensive glossary.

· CancerWeb UK (http://cancerweb. ncl. ac. uk/) This cancer resource site has information available on many different aspects of cancer, investigation and treatment. Contains a comprehensive glossary of (all) medical terms (not just cancer related).

· Cancernet UK (http://www. cancernet. co. uk/) Cancer treatment information by professionals & patients for professionals & patients.

· CancerHelp UK (http://www. cancerhelp. org. uk/default. asp) CancerHelp UK is a free information service about cancer and cancer care for people with cancer and their families. We believe that information about cancer should be freely available to all and written in a way that people can easily understand.

· AICR (UK) (http://www. aicr. org. uk/index. stm) The Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) website ‚“provides cancer information covering many forms and symptoms of the disease. They have answers to your questions on breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer and prostate cancer and can provide information on various issues regarding cancer prevention and treatment.”

· The Cancer Patient: Head and Neck Cancer, Cancer Treatments, Cancer Tests (http://orbit. unh. edu/cancer/) One person‚’s (helpful) observations on his cancer.

· Health Hub Ireland (http://www. healthhub. ie/)”The trusted health resource”. Advice on all health matters, not just limited to cancer.

· Wikipedia. By the web searches, of the web searcher for the web searcher. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s

This is truly a amazing resource on the surface of which we are just beginning think about scratching. Hint: Type “wp “ in the location bar to look up something in Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia.

Enjoy!!

Hello there Sukie

I have been away for a few days so missed your posts till now. Everyone seems to have said what needs to be said. Lots of friends and good advice here. Robert has suggested even more sites than I knew about, good man Robert. I hope SusieR sees this. As he says, possitive mental attitude can get you through and we are all here to make sure you have it and keep it. I have stolen Deborah51's line because it is so approriate - onwards and upwards!