Don’t Stick Your Tongue Out At ME!

Everyone Loves A Baby!
So, everyone’s been asking – well, close friends anyway – what’s up with the tongue thing?
I don’t want to overload the blog with personal stuff, especially somewhat distasteful (ha, I made a punny) personal stuff, but this is important to enough people to make it worthwhile. For which I am grateful. If you are looking for real estate stuff, skip this post.
Back in 2006 or so, my great dentist Pam Marzban became concerned about some white-ish material on the lower left back of my tongue. She suspected it to be leukoplakia, a possible precancerous condition, and sent me off to an oral surgeon (Dan Labriola) who could take a biopsy and ablate the area with a laser procedure, which he did. The leukoplakia was confirmed, but no cancer.
In 2008 Dr. Pam saw the leukoplakia again, but ran a new “Swish-and-Spit” test which came up negative.
This May, Dr. Pam saw a more dangerous looking red spot - erythroplakia. Back to Dr. Dan, who excised two chunks for biopsy and thought he got it all. The biopsy on one chunk was squamous cell carcinoma, with apparent negative edges; the other was negative but had enough interesting dysplasia that the area from which it was taken deserved careful monitoring.
Dr. Dan set me up for a C/T of head and neck to check for anything spreading, which I had done in mid July after the swelling from the excision was minimized. I went on vacation, and didn’t hear from Dr. Dan since we already had a followup set for October. The C/T didn’t show anything but a little swelling of the lymph nodes hanging over from the surgery.
Good ‘ol Pam (who insists I get cleaned at least 3x year – bad flossing habits) in late July saw the “bad spot” once again. When I got back to Dr. Dan in October, he took one look and said, “Kim, I want you to see Dr. Patty Lee [who is an otolaryngologist or ENT to most of us] because I think it’s back, and we need a broader view.”
I saw Dr. Patty right away and last Monday she took an even bigger chunk (under general anesthesia this time). Yesterday was my first followup and all looks “well.” The biopsy showed residual SQC at the prior site (not sure which one) but all the edges were clear. So once again, looks like we got it all. Next followup in mid-December.
Important things to think about:
- Oral cancer is nasty. Nasty-looking, nasty-feeling, and if you like to eat or drink (who doesn’t?), nasty to deal with. And, it can spread (metastasize). This most often happens when the cancer is in the back third of the mouth like mine, especially if you don’t regularly see a good dentist who looks for it.
- Using tobacco causes cancer. Don’t smoke or chew. I gave up the weeds in 1987 and got it anyway.
- Immoderate alcohol use can contribute. My use is moderate or less and I got it anyway.
- HPV is another known contributor. I don’t have it, but I got tongue cancer anyway.
- Cancer tends to run in families, so I understand. Not in mine, but I got it anyway.
- Tongue excisions hurt. I have Percocet (Oxycodone) and Lidocaine (in viscous form in a squirt bottle!) but it’s been over a week and the best I can do is sip soup or (with difficulty) slurp pasta that ’s creamy enough and small enough that no chewing is required. No tomato sauce or citrus, please. It’s going to be another couple of weeks before I can bear to move my tongue and have it risk scraping my teeth without causing enormous pain. (I have sharp molars that tilt toward the “bad spot.”) I stopped using the Perc after 2-3 days because (a) pills are hard to swallow and (b) even if I put them in a smoothie, I can’t drive and it’s not good for the ol’ digestive system, if you get my drift. I can’t brush my teeth, but I can gingerly swish mouthwash (ProHealth, no alcohol) to keep the halitosis under some semblance of control.
OK, this evening I am seeing some new clients! I will take my little whiteboard and my Lidocaine squeeze, and try not to breathe on them. Hopefully they will understand my rather clipped speech pattern. Yes, I could’ve put them off another week or so, but even though the mouth doesn’t want to work that much, the head, heart and hands gotta do something productive.
Here is an update on one of our TJHSST kids from 2002 – Teresa (Thao) Nguyen and her band Get Down Stay Down.



My youngest child Victoria . . . no more a “child,” to be sure . . . graduated from James Madison University on Saturday, with her older already-anointed brothers looking on with pride. It’s hard to believe this was the angsty teen who four years ago in her first dorm room was putting her stuff back into the boxes as fast as her Mom was taking it out, insisting she wanted to go home.
Special Education Teachers in Demand – washingtonpost.com
John Petersik (2000) and his lovely wife Sherry have developed a tremendous following for their remodeling/renovation work. The best place to catch up with what is happening for, by, and to them is at their primo website,
For starters, they’re writing columns for regional and national publications such as
John’s degree is in Communications and Sherry’s is in Fine Arts – and it’s clear that they are putting both to good use.
Thao Nguyen (2002) – most TJ alumni know her as Teresa – graduated with degrees in Sociology and Women’s Studies from
“I’m a huge Motown fan, and I enjoy the juxtaposition of a bright-sounding song with a melancholic lyric,” Nguyen told us when we chatted up the 25-year-old recently by phone in Portland, Ore. The sad thread isn’t a put-on; her childhood seems to have consisted of toiling in her mother’s laundromat (“I feel like I was an indentured servant,” she says jokingly of her days spent making change for customers) and time spent alone.
Here is a
I realize this is supposed to be primarily a blog about Real Estate . . . but hey, if I can get the TJ Alumni business, I’m gonna be set!
Sam Willmott is a 2005 TJ grad now finishing up at
A post from The Dilbert Blog:
Within a minute, Mollie laid down a steamer. I think she had been eating the cat food, because it wasn’t the firm little log I was expecting. But I soldiered on, turning the bag inside out like a glove, and grabbing the warm pile that melted in my hand. It wasn’t pleasant in the usual sense of the word, but I experienced some satisfaction in a job well done. I tied the bag into a tidy little package and intended to head home.
And that’s why we have a cat.