Eva, After I listened to your course 4 months ago in Seattle, I was so moved by your story that I vowed I would be better at oral cancer screenings, and this week, thanks to you, I saved a life.
My patient was just got diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma and decided to get his cleaning early before he started chemo. While I was checking his soft tissues I noticed this white lesion on his tongue, I always check the borders of tongues so it wasn’t “abnormal” for me to look there. I pulled out his tongue with a piece of gauze and at the very posterior lateral border of his tongue was a 10x10mm white lesion that had a crusty center. My heart just sank. I’ve seen oral cancer’s in text books before, but when you see something that “is not supposed to be there” you just know.
My doctor looked at the lesion and we referred him for a biopsy. I called the oral surgeon to check on the results myself. It was carcinoma in situ, only invading tissue, not muscle. It was caught early. The patient needed to have more tissue removed to ensure that the borders were clear.
Thanks to you I saved a life. What you do is so gracious and brave. I automatically thought of you when I heard the firm diagnosis. I wanted to tell you that what you do is changes peoples lives. Thank you for changing mine.
Stacy Schaplow
