How It All Began

    

For months I thought I had a persistent ulcer. I was so wrong. Who would have thought that at 24 years old I would have squamous cell cancer on my tongue? For 2-3 months I repeatedly saw my family doctor about this painful "ulcer." Like myself, she just assumed it was an ulcer and gave me several different prescriptions to numb the pain and attempt to make it go away. Eventually, as the pain increased, my mama made an appointment with a specialist, an ENT doctor. On June 13th I went to that doctor's appointment, by myself, thinking he would finally give me something to clear up this ulcer. I left the doctor's office that day in tears. I could not have been more shocked. He immediately did a biopsy. Of course I knew that meant cancer was a possibility. After the biopsy the doctor asked if I had any questions but by this time my mouth was full of cotton to stop the bleeding from the biopsy, my mind was spinning in a million different directions, I was about to cry, and all I wanted to do was get out of there and call my mama. How could this be happening? That night my mama tried to calm my nerves as much as possible and I was scheduled to go back to the ENT the next day to find out the results of the biopsy. That was the longest 24 hours of my life.