My diagnosis

I have been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. The only symptom I had was a swollen lymph node on the left side of my neck under my jaw. With this type of cancer, the lymph node is the second place the cancer has gone to. The reason I've gone in for exploratory surgery (twice) is so that the ENT surgeon could locate the primary tumor which they found at the base of my tongue not far from the lymph node. The tumor was very small (at least near the surface of the tongue) and surgeon basically took all he could get for a tissue biopsy during the first surgery. I was told after the second surgery that no cancer was present near the surface of my tongue, so the surgeon had to go a bit deeper. We are still waiting for the pathology report which should be prepared by next Tuesday (July 13).