Survive Cancer

In Nov 2005 I had an inch-long invasive tumor removed from my tongue, along with that side of my tongue from the tip to just about my back teeth. I am an answering service operator! I had to keep talking! 92% CURE rate at 5 years if lymph nodes and salivary glands are free of cancer on biopsy, and mine were. I have never smoked a cigarette or chewed tobacco in my life. I drink less than two alcoholic beverages a month. No one knows what risk factor could have triggered this. My cancer surgery was the first surgery I have ever had in my 46 year old life. It really is just luck. I know how much worse it could have been, or how easily it could all start again. They only need to have missed one cancerous cell. I try to live more in the moment. The woman in the hospital room with me had oral cancer migrate into the bones of her face and was missing quite a lot of her facial structure. It was all terrifying but strangely it was more frightening for my family than for me. It seemed very clear what was expected of me, but they were less sure and more upset.