INDIANAPOLIS — This month's Check Up 13 focus is a cancer that can impact your senses.
A screening of your head and neck is pretty simple, and a doctor can pretty quickly determine if something is off. Todd Leach's tongue cancer presented as a lump in his neck, which he discovered while shaving.
"I felt a lump and I thought, 'Well, that just don't feel right,'" the Winchester resident said. "I just kept an eye on it, and it felt like it was getting bigger and bigger. And that's exactly what it was doing because it was growing."
His Ascension St. Vincent ENT Dr. Joshua Greene said the bump was the result of a tongue cancer that spread.
"Todd's was on the left side at his base of the tongue and then extended to the lymph nodes in that area," Greene said. "But it's important to realize that, you know, we're talking about just head and neck cancer all the way from the top of our sinus cavity, all the way down to pretty much where our vocal process is, so this is a significant area and have many different symptoms that can be associated with it."
Leach's cancer was Stage 4A, so he had surgery and radiation. This year, he'll be five years cancer-free.
"I celebrate it every day," he said.
Leach has had more time to be with his grandson, and another is on the way. He's grateful he got in to get checked, and if you have a lump, bump or lesion, he wants you to do the same.
"Get it checked out," he said. "Definitely. Because you just don't know. You can't feel if you've got cancer. You don't just know it. You've got to find it and take it to the professionals."
If you have something that you think you should be checked out, the Check Up 13 free head and neck screening is for anyone 18 and older who has a persistent lump, bump or lesion in their mouth.
To register, click here to sign up through midnight Thursday.