Has the other shoe dropped? I am now acutely aware that it is what we all wait for. Bill was diagnosed with BOT on 4/1/11,treated with surgery/RT and on 10/1/11 told he was disease-free. We have celebrated, move on with our lives and held to our faith. For some reason, I have believed he would never recur. Two weeks ago, my husband found a small, firm mass along the jaw line's soft tissue. We saw the Rad Onc doc and are waiting for what may be another round of terror in the face of even worse odds. Today he has the PET. On Monday, our world may change once again. Is there life past recurrence or is this "it"?

Hi, I noticed you are from MN, we are also. We live in northern MN, north of Brainerd and had treatment at the U of MN. Where was your husband treated? So sorry you are dealing with new issues, it is everyone's fears. But, just lately Charm had his third clear scan after going through treatment 3 times. Kerri a young mother just went through her second treatment and had a good scan so there are success stories out there. Glad you found this forum. I found it almost a year ago when my husband was going through treatment and it has been so supportive and informative. I am glad you held to your faith, it is all we can do. My husband is a Pastor and hard to believe he had cancer of his vocal cord which after the first surgery left him without his normal voice. It sounds like he has laryngitis all the time and he has no volume. He said he would speak again and he did. I am so proud of him and with a head-set mic he does ok. How old is your husband? Do you have kids at home? Jeff is 58 and our older 4 are all on their own but we have our 14 year old still at home. Take care.

Terri

Gail

Waiting for those test results is so hard. Sure there is life past recurrence - real life - fun life- not Walking Dead pseudo life. (Although this last round of radiation & chemo did have me doing a pretty good zombie imitation taking out the heavy trash cans and shambling back up the driveway )
Seriously, the Petscan could be clear, but even if the cancer is back, there are options. Keep us posted and more importantly, Keep the Faith
Charm

Good luck with everything, and hopefully it's something minor instead.

WoW, Thank you for this support. We moved from Indianapolis to Minneapolis Sept 12. Bill was in sales and has returned to part-time pastoral work in this area. Lived here 28 yrs ago! Transition was physically hard for him. He just now left the house for Univ of MN to have PET. Terri, he just saw a Dr C Lee, rad onc yesterday. She seems nice but all new docs? Scary. Of all things, I'm a research nurse but know nobody here in Twin Cities. Feeling pretty vulnerable and out of my comfort zone. I work from home so cancer is....everywhere. Can't believe we have to wait all weekend. So, PET could be false (+) Charm? I hadn't thought of that... So, I'm sitting here at home working and reading the charts of other newly dx cancer patients and waiting on the destiny of my own. The ironies of life.

Where was your first recurrence? I don't know much about how they are treated for BOT and can't bring myself to look yet.

All my recurrences were in my in my neck, and treated by either radiation, surgery, or chemoradiation. BOT recurrence would be treated the same way, but surgery is often the preference, possibly followed by Chemoradiation.

Gail
Hang onto your faith and know that you BOTH can deal with whatever life throws at you. I'm currently in my 3rd recurrence and most of the time feel GREAT-barring some annoying chemo neurological problems. Life is what I make it!