Well, I finally gathered enough courage to post on this wonderful forum. I'm a 57 year old woman temporarily residing in a very small town in central Louisiana. My husband is staying in a FEMA travel trailer in the front yard of our ruined home in New Orleans. I won't go into the Katrina story because I'm sure you have already heard it more than once. Since the storm, my mother-in-law died, my cat died, and my mother is in the hospital recovering from surgery for an obstructed colon. As if that weren't bad enough, I got the results of my biopsy a few days ago and I do have oral cancer.

My surgery is scheduled for Monday, May 22 at the cancer center of LSU in Shreveport Louisiana. They will remove the tumor on my tongue and do a neck dissection. Tell you the truth, I'm not really sure what all they're going to do. But I do know that I will be in the hospital a mininum of 6 days and I will have a trach and a nasal feeding tube. And I'm more than a little frightened.

So many questions run through my mind, some of them probably silly. Like how do you brush your teeth will all that swelling? I also have COPD; how do you use an inhaler through a trach? I know I should have asked the doctor all these questions but I just didn't think of them at the time.
Ah well, I guess I'll find out.

Anyway, i sure would appreciate any words and or thoughts of encouragement. Maybe even a prayer. Thank you for reading this too long introduction.

Helen M (nehkima)