Thank you so much, Cheryl. The FNA of her neck came back showing abnormal cells, but it did not confirm the presence of cancer cells. Seemed like good news at the time. But yesterday, her surgeon painted a picture we were not really expecting. Essentially, he said that he did not trust the results of the FNA because the area biopsied was not a solid tumor and because of they pain she's in. He said that because her cancer is so aggressive and came back so quickly, it's not "curable." In other words, they threw everything at it that they had, and yet here we are. He talked about possibly enrolling her in some trials and/or doing a surgical biopsy of the neck depending on what's going on in the chest. He said surgery to remove the cancer this time would be more complicated than the first and more radiation so close to her first round would not be advisable in his opinion. We will know more after the chest biopsy, but he used words like "quality of life" and "making you comfortable and nourished." We understand what he's saying and appreciated the honesty-she has great docs-but we're hoping he's a really great doc that's just wrong this time. We've scheduled a second opinion with his blessing, and of course, she has her chest biopsy coming up on Monday. Sorry for the lengthy post.


Mom (beautiful soul) 12/4/14 SCC L tongue (neg. biopsy 10/14);
1/8/15 hemiglossectomy/neck dissection: T3N1, extracapsular extnsn, PNI, pseudoglandular/spindle cell, margins not clr;
2/2/15 RT/carbo/taxol;
4/15/15 CT clr;
5/15 neuropathic/trigeminal pain/headaches;
6/15 recurrence flap margins/BOT; cancer encroaching skin
7/23/15 hemiglossectomy; clr margins & nodes
10/22/15 CT: nasopharyngeal tumor, jaw, and necrotic nodes; tumor under chin/corner of mouth
11/5/15 left cancer behind