Mom diagnosed recovering from squamous, now may have basal cell
Hi All,
I'm new to the boards. My mom had been diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on the base of her tongue. For her first surgery, they removed the growth from her tongue and some of the lymph nodes in her neck. She was doing okay for maybe 4-5 months and then it came back very aggressively. The surgeon took out all of the lymph nodes he could in her neck, but said he didn't want to get too close to the carotid artery so had to leave some in.
She is about 9 weeks removed from 33 radiation treatments and 3 chemo treatments but her spirits have been completely broken. I feel like she has given up the fight to get back to her normal life. She even seems to be developing a fear of going out and being in public (I think part of this has to do with her being self-conscious after her surgery). She is pretty much always tired and has feelings of anxiousness.
Now she has two growths on her face, which we are waiting on the biopsy results for. The surgeon said he thought it was most likely cancer, so we are just waiting for the confirmation.
Can anyone please share their experiences with recovering from chemo/radiation therapy (ie what you did to overcome the fatigue, and hurdles you overcame, etc)?
Also, if anyone has experience with Basal Cell Carcinoma can you please talk about what the treatment was like for that? Any insight at all would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry for making this so long but I'm desperate to find some way to help her.
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