Six hour surgery and tongue reconstruction: Gold Coast footballers' cancer shock
When Jason Burge went to the doctor to organise a cortisone injection for his knee in late September so he could play in Palm Beach Currumbin’s QAFL semi-final, getting what he thought was an ulcer checked on his tongue was virtually an afterthought. It was cancer.
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WHEN Jason Burge went to the doctor to organise a cortisone injection for his knee in late September so he could play in Palm Beach Currumbin’s QAFL semi-final, getting what he thought was an ulcer checked on his tongue was virtually an afterthought. It was cancer.
The news began what was at times a dark and scary period for the respected Gold Coast Australian rules figure who has won four premierships, two with Southport (2006 and 2008) and PBC (2017 and 2018).
“I’d had what I thought was an ulcer on the back left part of my tongue for like a year,” Burge said
“It would flare up sometimes, some things I ate would set it off.
“Being a bloke just thought it was another ulcer and girlfriend Aly Maybury kept saying I need to get it checked.
“When I went to get the referral to get injection for knee I said while I got you can you have a look at my tongue and she referred me to the ear nose and throat doctor. He took a sample and it came back as cancerous.”
The revelation was shocking but Burge still had no real cause for concern. The 34-year-old was told a simply surgery to cut it out and an overnight stay in hospital on October 21 would solve the issue.
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“After they took it out, they analysed it a bit more and found out the margin between the cancerous tissue and the healthy tissue wasn’t big enough and that they needed to do another operation on November 7,” Burge said.
“They said it could potentially spread into my lymph nodes and throughout my whole body. “They had to take more of my tongue out.
“It led to a tongue reconstruction and they took 28 of 32 lymph nodes out that side.
“They had to replace the artery in the tongue with one from my lower arm and take a skin graft from my wrist which is now on my tongue.
“The operation went for about seven hours and I had tracheotomy put in my throat so I wasn’t swallowing or breathing to heavy and upsetting the surgery.”
Burge said he was calm in stages and scared at other times before having a five night stint in the intensive care unit post-surgery and another week on the ward after that.
“I didn’t really understand the gravity of what I was about to go through,” Burge said.
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“I wasn’t prepared for how full on it was.
“Five nights in ICU wasn’t fun. it’s pretty bad in there.
“I was lucky to have Aly, who is a midwife, in there as well. She was amazing.
“I couldn’t talk so I was writing everything down and drooling everywhere.
“I was so drugged up and uncomfortable, everything was beeping and people were poking and prodding me all the time. You couldn’t get a good rest in ICU and then I got a bad infection when I got to the ward so the high temperatures and cold sweats kicked in.
“I was done, absolutely spent and pretty cooked.”
Burge was fortunate the cancer didn’t spread throughout any parts of his body.
“I was lucky because it wasn’t aggressive,” Burge said.
“They did say if it was aggressive I’d be dead because I’d left it there for so long, I was playing with fire.”
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Burge was confident the cancer was gone after the second surgery but had to wait a week for the final results to come.
“I wasn’t really nervous but I just wanted the OK,” Burge said.
“You just want the official result and correct weight to come through.
“That Friday night I finally got some sleep, woke up with a bit of an appetite and knew I had mates coming on the Saturday.
“I was doing the form guide early on Saturday and the doctor came in and gave me the all clear.”
Adding to Burge’s good news was the fact his family and friends, many who are former and current teammates at Southport and Palm Beach Currumbin, had been working over the later stages of that week to renovate his backyard.
They rallied together to raise some money before digging up the garden beds, planting trees, inserting a water feature, installing multiple new televisions and buying a barbecue.
“It was unbelievable,” Burge said.
“They said they had to stop donations because they would have had to buy me a second house.
“You realise who your close mates are in that time, how much family means to you and what they are willing to do for you as well as how generous people are when you are down.
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“I broke down when I saw it all once I got home. I was pretty emotional about it and so grateful.”
With his operation behind him Burge has been given the green light to start some light contact exercise and is hoping to return to football in 2021.
“I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself to play a certain amount of games,” Burge said.
“It’s a long season so I’ll go back into training next year. I’ll work my way into a bit of fitness and see how I’m feeling.”
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