16F with tongue cancer
Hi, yeah, as the title says, I have been diagnosed with tongue cancer at an age when the chances to get it are so slim they are practically nonexistent. I'm not sure why I'm writing this, probably just to get this off my chest and maybe ask for what I should expect?
I've had a weird, white patch on my tongue ever since around January 2025 or so. Honestly, I could have had it for longer than that, since it was on the side and not visible unless I angled my tongue in a particular way. It didn't hurt whatsoever, so I had nearly no concerns at all.
Neither did my orthodontist when I brought it up during a visit, since after getting my braces removed I had to go to those regular check-ups (I still do). The doctor said with complete certainty that it's just some inflammation from a sharp tooth of mine at the back of my jaw, so they filed the tooth down a bit.
The pattern repeated one or two more times; the patch didn't disappear, so they filed the tooth again and left it at that, thinking that since I'm generally healthy and don't smoke, not to mention my young age, it was impossible for me to have developed a tumor.
Once I had my scheduled visit at the dentist, he also seemed confident that everything was fine, but just to be sure, he directed me to an orthodontic surgeon, who, also thinking it couldn't be anything too strange, prescribed me an antibiotic to see whether it could be something bacterial.
At that point, the white patch was starting to disappear and instead there was a small swelling with a dent from my tooth. The doctor figured the issue came from the teeth on that side of my jaw being slightly tilted inwards due to the growth of my wisdom teeth.
The thing began hurting, and the pain kept getting slightly worse gradually, and by the next visit, the doctor decided to get a sample of it and send it to the lab just to be sure, and, as you could probably guess, it turned out to be an early-stage malicious tumor.
I was instantly directed to the best hospital in the area and after a couple of inspections, scans and chats with different doctors, I got my surgery scheduled.
I would get a piece of my tongue (approximately 2cm radius from the tumor) removed and replaced with tissue from, most likely, my thigh. I would also get my lymph nodes removed on both sides of my neck and potentially they would have to basically cut open a hole in my throat to get to the airway in case my tongue would swell too much during the surgery to allow breathing.
(They say it's unlikely I will need radiation or chemotherapy, but I'm not really crossing the possibility off, since it looks like I've already lost the lottery once by even getting the tumor in the first place. I do hope they're right though!!)
My surgery is in 3 days, and I'm going to stay the previous day entirely at the hospital. Afterwards I'm going to stay there for 7-10 days, and, frankly, I'm not exactly sure what to expect. My doctors did say that the time at the hospital will basically not be a great time, but that I will feel better gradually with every day, and people's stories I read seem to agree with that. But I also saw people say that regaining speech took them much, much longer than my doctors ever insinuated.
Is it my doctors trying to keep me from panicking or is it possible that my recovery will go smoother due to my circumstances? Thanks in advance for any answers.
(I've been advised to post this here properly instead of just forwarding my post from another thread, thanks a lot again to that person!!)
Edit: Perhaps I should mention, the current pain in my tongue has really lowered my quality of life already as it is. While it doesn't look particularly appalling, the "dent" in the swelling has flattened out a bit but is now about the size of a fingernail with the swollen edges of it hurting really bad at any touch. Swallowing, speaking, and not to mention chewing has been accompanied by pain all the time for the last couple of weeks, getting especially worse the last two weeks. I can't really tell wether the reason I lost nearly 2kg over the last couple of days was because of stress or because I keep giving up on my meals before finishing them fully or just taking smaller portions because the pain is too insufferable. I've been told I shouldn't take ibuprofen too much now since strong painkillers like that aren't good for you long-term and I will be needing them post-surgery more, but the other strong pain medication I was prescribed just doesn't help whatsoever even if I take nearly the maximum dosis (it seems like I'm immune to its effects?). The pain already really sucks as it is, and I'm, frankly, not looking forward to feeling even worse for the next couple of months after already feeling terrible so far for so long.