Anyone have Squamous cell cancer and where?

So here is the news on Don’s ongoing care:
We received a call from the surgeon in Portland at OHSU this morning
He presented Don‘s case to all the oncologists, scientists and technicians etc at their monthly meeting
They discussed it thoroughly along with his oncology surgeon, Dr. Heidi Lee ( attending through zoom) and came up with a plan. He called to discuss it with us.
They sincerely believe he will benefit from two sessions of immunotherapy. Each session lasts three weeks. We are unaware of what that entails daily yet.
He then wants to remove the malignant lymph node that was discovered on right side of his neck.
He then talked about the cancer on the center of his tongue
His words : I don’t think just trying to get that spot out is going to work, I need to remove a good portion of the tongue, as it is like a seed. The seed turns into a weed and then pops up somewhere on your tongue; it may pop up again
After removing a portion of tongue, we would take skin tissue from your arm and replace the lost tissue on your tongue
You would be in the hospital 4-6weeks as you would need to be tube fed until you’re ready to go home and Charlene can continue to feed you …………. So far that’s all we know.

I think I’m going to vomit😫
🥺😢😭

@cappy51 What is your husband's thought on this plan? If he goes forward with this, when will it happen?
Ginger

@cappy51 I was waiting to hear what was ultimately decided. That must have been an agonizing wait for you and now having to process this information. To say it's a lot is an understatement.

I have undergone immunotherapy with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and did not find the initial side effects troublesome; I believe that and/or possibly and nivolumab (Opdivo) ctan be used to treat tongue cancer prior to surgery and such neoadjuvant (before surgery) treatment has proven to be very effective. These are typically given in an infusion center intravenously over the course of a half hour, with time beforehand to do a quick patient assessment and allow time to flush the IV and wait about a half hour after treatment. Your medical provider will give you additional information about the immunotherapeutic medication that is being administered so you and your husband can be aware of any possible side effects to report. I'm sure they hadn't wanted to overwhelm you both with these details during the call you had about the treatment plan.

Once you and your husband have had time to become more acclimated to the proposed care plan, you want to investigate augmentive and alternative communication devices to become familiar with using post-op. This can be of tremendous help during recovery and while getting accustomed to the reconstructed tongue that will help restore speech. A Speech and Language Pathologist from OHSU may be able to assist in selecting one that has the best design features.

As @colleenyoung pointed out there is a forum for head and neck cancers available here https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/head-neck-cancer/. There is also a organization that provides resouces and publications you may find helpful: https://www.spohnc.org/

And as @gingerw inquired, I'd like to ask how your husband is handling this.