A little background

In January 2006 I got diagnosed with a squamous cell cancer (in German also called "Plattenepithelkarzinom"). Usually this type of cancer can be found on the side or lateral border. In my case it was found on the tongue surface in the middle maybe 1/2 inch away from the tip of the tongue. 2 1/2 years later, after having done about 10 surgeries I'm starting a radiation therapy. 

10 surgeries might sound awful but so far we've always tried to find the balance between being in the safe side and fighting the cancer effectively. The good part is, that besides a few weeks where talking was more difficult  I didn't lose my speaking capabilities and I even can taste food still very well.

The bad part is that my cancer is recessive and we don't really know why. Because the tumor spread to the  lymph nodes we had to remove them. Initially only on the right side. That was about 1 1/2 years ago. At that time only one node was positive so we decided to not do a radiation yet. This early summer I also had to remove nodes on the left and because more than one node was positive we've decided to finally go ahead with the radiation therapy. 

Preparation took about three weeks. I'll write more about it. Today the real thing starts. I'll try to take some pictures and document everything. The reason why I'm doing this is to provide as much details as possible so that people can learn more about what to expect. 

I don't know yet if it will be very tough for me or not. What I know so far is that every person will react differently and that side affects are different from person to person. 

In general I have a pretty good feeling. I believe this will help but let's see what happens. 

Stay with me.

G