We have created this page to help keep everybody updated with my battle with Squamous Cell Cancer (tonsil and neck cancer).
Dana noticed a lump my neck on December 5 and , as usual, I ignored her and did nothing about it until the week before Christmas. On December 16, I went into urgent care and they treated it as an infected glad with antibiotics. They told me if it wasn't gone in a week to come back in for a follow-up. I returned a week later, on December 26, and had a cat scan and chest x-rays done. The doctor got the results back and thought he had seen a spot on my lung and sent me to a lung specialist. On December 30, the lung specialist ordered a biopsy and a more detailed cat scan. January 6, I then went to a surgeon for a biopsy and he wouldn't touch it and told me that I need to see a ears, nose and throat specialist who I saw later that same day. Between appointments I went and got my second cat scan done. The ENT specialist scheduled my for a biopsy on my tonsils and lung and checked my stomach on January 18. On January 19 I heard from the head doctor at the Morey Cancer Center, who I was referred to by the ENT, and wanted to schedule an appointment to evaluate my condition. An appointment was set up for January 23. At that time he explained that I had cancer of the left tonsil and that it had spread into the soft cell tissue on the left side of my neck. His first recommendation was that we were going to do 8 weeks of radiation treatment 5 days a week with 1 treatment per week of chemotherapy. He also schedule me to meet with a surgeon at the University of Michigan on January 25. When we met with the surgeon he explained that he would do surgury 10-12 weeks after my last treatment. He would cut my neck open and remove my lymph nodes and also remove all non-essential tissue of any type to ensure that they have removed all cancer. He also stated that we would be doing radiation 2 times a day for 8 weeks. On the morning of January 27, I went to the Morrey Cancer Center and went though a trial run of radiation treatment. At that time I was informed that my treatment, once again had changed. I would be doing radiation 2 times a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. The first week of treatment I would also be have chemo treatment everyday and I would also have chemo everyday on the sixth week. Then we would wait 21 days and have 1 week of chemotherapy, wait 21 more days and have another week of chemotherapy. Starting January 30 I will begin my treatments.
I would like to thank everybody for their concerns and I thank them very much for their offering of help and prayers. I know this will be a long and hard battle but with the family and friends I have surronding me I am confident that things will turn out fine. I ask for everyone to please continue to call and visit. It is important for me to see and talk to people. My email address is listed, please feel free to send me an email with any questions or concerns you may have. I will respond with a return email or a personal phone call. That is all I have for now but I will update as any new information becomes available.
February 1, 2006 Well here we are three days into therapy. I came through the first day with flying colors, the 2nd day I was a little queezy, today (day 3) I am alot queezy. There has been a slight change in the therapy schedule, I am now getting chemo the first and fifth weeks. After the 6 weeks I will meet with the surgeon in Ann Arbor again to see how things look so I may not have to go through the chemo scheduled for afterwards. My schedule for the day looks like this: 5:30am off to work (trying to keep some normalcy in my life. I want to work all the days I am able and it give me a reason to get out of bed) 9:30am radiation - this lasts 20 minutes, then it's on to chemo therapy which lasts 4 hours, I get done a little after 2pm but I can't have my 2nd radiation treatment until 6 hours after the first one so Dana and I do alittle running around town getting errands done (usually lia sophia business - I should make her put me on her payroll) then back to the cancer center for radiation at 3:45pm. We are usually heading for home at about 4:10pm. We took pictures of the center and the people that work there, me getting chemo and on the radiation table. As soon as we figure out how to load them on this site we will share them with you. I want to say thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement and the prayers, they mean alot to me!!! Keep them coming! They keep my spirits up and are a great help with the positive attitude!! I will respond to e-mails a quick as I can and I would love to hear from you! Thanks again! Only 5 and a 1/2 more weeks to remission!!
February 3, 2006 - Only 5 more weeks to go!!! This was a hard week for Charlie. He is having trouble with nausea, the last time he ate was lunch on Tuesday. They do pump him full of fluids while he is getting his chemo so he is not dehydrated. He is also sleeping alot - I tease him that he sleeps 18 hours a day and naps for the other 6. The nurses say the drugs they are giving him to try to control the nausea will make him tired and the radiation will make him tired. We are hopeful that by the end of the weekend most of the effects from the chemo will wear off and he will be ready to face the next three weeks of radiation with his usual spunk. (We are not discussing the next round of chemo in the fifth week!! - we'll face that when it gets here.) I think the mass on his neck looks like it is getting smaller already. The nurses and I talked about it - I actually thought it might be my wishful thinking but they all seemed to think it looked smaller too. I am sill having a hard time getting the pictures uploaded to the website but hang in there I am confident we will get them added. Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers as you are in our thoughts and prayers also. Molly and I will be away tomorrow (Saturday) for a college visit so Vickie Schafer has volunteered to be here for Charlie - thanks Vickie! Feel free to call or write, Charlie will be happy to hear from you - and Vickie will let you know if he is sleeping and can take a message. More later.....
Thanks to Marcus Y I can now update again!! What a guy!!!