Monday January 8, 2007

Well Monday finally made it here, so off to the doc we went. I was getting a little nervous when we overheard them talking about not having the pathology and then that they had talked to the lab and they couldn't find it. That would have really sucked to have had to redo the biopsies! Doctor Dickey is great, he got on the phone and talked to the pathologist to get the info on the biopsies while they waited for the official fax.

So, here is the scoop:

The boys are officially Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)

Bill is the originating site on the tongue and Earl is a lymphnode. He does feel very strongly that it is the only location, but we won't know for sure until we get the PET scan is done. We're feeling good about it also.

It appeared to him that Bill was actually growing out away from the tongue and not into the tissue.

Treatment for this is probably mostly going to be radiotherapy (RT) with maybe some chemotherapy. He said that it would be a long battle to get through this with a lot of bad days but good ones too. He feels that with my age, my support (the family), and attitude that we'll make it through this very well.

He does want me to go see the dentist. One of potential side effects of the RT is it can kill some of the teeth so he wants my teeth to be as healthy as possible before the start. Oh joy! So I have agreed to go to the torture chamber. If we can figure the insurance thing!

Heck of a time to change insurances and have blizzards so we don't have insurance cards yet!