Saturday, Jan 6, 2007

Today started out a bit rough...a little hang over from yesterdays blues. Andrea and I had a long talk about some of the big issues...me worrying about others worrying about me, dollars and what not. I really don't know what I would do without her. She's the glue that holds it all together.

After that we had a pretty good day. We have started to be better about eating healthier...better late than never...and are trying out some of the dishes in the Biggest Loser Cookbook. We made our second one out of the book this evening and not only was it very healthy and low in calories but it really tasted good. We had fun making it together and the kid got home from work in time to enjoy it too! He loves that we're eating healthier.

A lot of the preliminary research that I have been doing talks a lot about some of the bad things that I have participated in the past that may have helped lead up to this. Chewing tabacoo is a biggy for this as well as not eating enough veggies and fruit! Go figure...man cannot live on meat alone...and I thought we were carnivores!!! There are always a lot of would'a, could'a, and should'a in any situation and they never change a damn thing. So I am not going to dwell on them. But I am going to start living healthier.

Friday - Jan 5, 2007

Yesterday was a rough day. Maybe the anethesia or it all just kind of hitting home...not really sure, but I had a bad case of the blues.

We did finally get ahold of the ENT's office to get an appointment setup with him...11:00 am on Monday. Hopefully the pathology is back at that point and we can learn the exact nature of the beast. They did refer me to an onocologist at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center...but, you can't get an appointment with these guys by just calling them up. I had to give them the name, rank and serial number, refering doc, primary care doc, insurance info...all I really want to give them is Earl and Bill!!! Once they contact the other docs then they will decide how quickly they need to see me and call me to setup an appointment. We'll see how this goes...I understand most of why they are doing it, but it sounds like a little god syndrome.

I am putting up a new link that goes to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center a.k.a. Colorado Cancer Center. There is a lot of info there on other cancers but also a lot on the technologies that they use in diagnosis and cures.

New Link Added

I have added a new link (you'll see it on the right hand side of the screen) from the Oncology Channel. This link has what appears to be some good information on head and neck cancer. Until we know officially what type of cancer and what stage it is in this is some general info. We should have the pathology back either Saturday or Monday and that should be more definitive. The research I've done so far shows that the cancer is more than likely caused by the chewing tabaco more that the smoking...the stupid things we do!

I'll be adding more links when I find them and find them to be worth anything. If any of you find anything good out there let me know and I'll add it.

The Biopsies

We had surgery scheduled for 1:00 PM MST yesterday, Thursday, January 4, 2007. We arrived at the surgery center at 11:45 to get the paperwork done and get things going. That part went very fast as I did a preadmit on the phone on Wednesday. Before we knew it I was in my gown in pre-op and ready for surgery! Andrea was back with me and giving me payback for all the crap I have given her over the years in pre-op! I should have known that that would come back to me sooner or later! We had fun, kidded around and as alway she kept a smile on my face.

Time seemed to crawl. Then we were told that the doc had been delayed and we would be running a little late. Time really crawled at that point. Andrea went out to make some calls and let everyone know not to worry and showed back up with Karen. Well the two of them now took advantage of the situation and picked on me terribly!!! They helped keep things loose and my mind off of the clock.

At about 3:30 we finally headed into the OR...I remember a few minutes until I got my sleepy juice via IV...then next thing I new I was in Post Op. I was pretty sore in the neck, where he took a needle biopsy from Earl; the throat, where he took a good sized biopsy from Bill; my jaw from my mouth being pried open and my lips where I ended up with some blisters.

The doc told the girls that they had to work hard to get the bleeding to stop in my throat and that they had a tough time because my mouth and throat are so small, but he took a good sized chunk from Bill. He did let them know that it was initially confirmed to be cancer...and they thought it was called squamous. The girls joined me in post op and let me know what was going on and took me home. My post op nurse was really great and lives near us...she even gave us her home number in case we needed anything.

Andrea took me home while Karen went to get my scripts filled for antibiotics and tylenol 3. We got home and Andrea made me some beef and barley soup - I hadn't eaten all day and was starving! I was still pretty groggy from the aneth. so I didn't make it too long before I was up in bed.

A Little History

Around mid Novemeber 2006, after living with an annoying sinus infection for a couple of weeks, my wife pushed me to get in and see the doctor. Around that time it seemed that I had a swollen gland on the left side of my neck to go along with it. After a visit to the doctor I was on antibiotics for 10 days in which the sinus infection went away and the lump seemed to reduce in size. After about a week after ending the antibiotics the lump was back to it's full size again. At the proding of my wife again (because I said..."just give it some time, it'll go away") I went back to see the doctor. He looked at it and put me back on antibiotics but also sent me to get a CT Scan just to be sure it was nothing else.

On December 19th I had a CT Scan done on my neck, and then our first major snow storm hit! By time the holidays were over and enough snow was moved so people got back to work, I got a call from the doc on December 27th with news that I had a couple of malignancies in my neck and he wanted me in to see an ENT. One is the one we can see on the left side of my neck who I named Earl, and the other was at the base of my tongue in the neck which I named Bill.

On Thursday December 28th I was in to see the ENT who took a look at everything...if you've never had your nose and sinuses numbed it's something you'll never forget!!!....at that point he set me up with out patient surgery to get a couple of biopsies on the boys. That got scheduled for January 4, 2007. After dealing with the change in insurance policies and all the pleasures that you can have with that, we are now up to the point of the surgery and what we found out.