Dan had a radical neck dissection on Christmas eve. They got some of the tumor, however, they were not able to get it all. It is attached to his carotid artery and path results show it in the wall of the jugular up to the base of the skull. No clear margins could be obtained from surgery so mega doses of chemo/rad are being set up for about three weeks so the radical neck dissection can heal enough. He has some pain the neck from the dissection, but his worse pain is in his head and face from what we think is still the cancer. They left a thumb top amount there. He is on percocet, some mophine patch and he still feels the cancer (apart from the pain). What a nightmare this is since he just had the tongue cancer 5 months ago and modified neck dissections showed nodes taken to be negative. The worry is this cancer grows most aggressively in Dan and we have at least three weeks before starting the chemo/rad. Also, he has the verrucous leukoplakia back on his tongue.
Any information out there that can help us? The news is bad and it's hard to stay positive during this time.
Thanks for any and all input!
Deb

Debbie/Caregiver/wife of Dan, diagosed with SCC tongue, Stage II/III, 1/3 tongue removal, lymph node dissection both sides of neck, skin graph 7/30/03. Left tumor found - radical left neck dissection 12/24/03. Could not get all of tumor/wrapped around carotid artery and in wall of jugular. 1/12/04 beginning of 6 doses of Taxol/Cistoplatin once a week, and rad 70 gray 5 days a week/6 weeks.