oral cancer: for Sandi

[Guest guest]

Sandi--I didn't have any x-rays. My growth was clearly

visible. I had soreness & what looked like a floss cut. I

had a routine check-up and had the dentist look at it. And

he said--It looks like a floss cut. By the next visit--which

was 6-9 months later--I told him it was still there. I

think at this time it looked a dull white & was about 1/4 " .

Hard to remember because it was 1987. I was 44. My cml dx

was March 2000. My dentist sent me to the periodontist. He

took a scraping for biopsy & told me we were being cautious,

that it didn't look like anything. The biopsy was done at

Penn & came back malignant. My perio called to give me the

report & I promptly went to the cabinet where I kept the

cigarettes I was rationing for myself and threw them out.

Asked my perio if it could be lab error. He said, " If

Dr.____ says it is then it is. " (He said it kindly. My perio

was a gentle person.) He sent me to an ent at Jefferson in

Phila. I live in town, an easy drive. I had laser

surgery, out-patient. Even the ent doubted it was anything.

The growth was in an odd spot to be caused by smoking. Every

dr. I saw asked me if I drank. (I drank only socially &

could never handle much. Now I can handle less. And some

days I wish I did drink.) There was no follow-up

treatment--no chemo, no radiation-- but regular check-ups,

like every couple of months. I had a friend recovering from

breast cancer & I had more frequent check-ups than she did.

So the recurrence rate was high, but no one told me this out

loud. I never had a recurrence. The pathology report said

squamous cell carcinoma in situ. I worried anyway for at

least a year. Over the years, I've had several things that

weren't typical. And since cml and an epilepsy dx after the

cml, I don't wait for anything. I think I would ask the dr.

why the wait, what's the risk in waiting, and couldn't

something be done sooner to ease the worry factor. Hope this

is helpful. You can e-mail me personally if you like.

marcon@...

Best regards--Ruth Marcon