Surgery results - 11-22-2003 01:27 AM
Hello Everyone,
I just got home from the hospital after being there for 17 hours and I'm still unable to wind down fo I figured I would post now while everything is still fresh.
A few good things happened and some very peculiar.
The surgeon found first of all that the cancer in his mouth was not as extensive as he thought.He removed the tumor,the left side of his tongue and some of the back of his throat.Now,this is where is gets weird.The cancer in his neck was actually more than he expected.In the doctors own words he removed a great deal of the left side of his neck.He called this an extensive radical neck resection.What he thinks he found in his neck are melanoma mets and lesions but he believes that he has some carcinoma too.He said this is quite unusual but he'll have to wait for the path results to say if he is right.Has anyone ever heard of having 2 kinds of cancer in one area?
The surgeon says that he got all the cancer,and he would not need plastic surgery.The bad thing is the trach tube is going to stay in for months,due to the damage in his neck.I guess I'll find out more in the coming days.The original prognosis was so different but he said that he still feels that he got it all.He has to stay in the critical care unit until tomorrow then he'll go to icu for a day or so.He still feels he'll remain in the hospital for 2 weeks.I asked him about his future and he wants to wait for the path results but feels that the mets in his neck area were extreme.He now feels that somewhere in his neck was the point of origin and it metastized to his tongue.I was so confused because we've been told all along it was the other way around.He said he won't able to talk for months and when he starts to he'll need extensive help with eating and swallowing.We were all very tired so I hope to get more answers tomorrow.
I'd like to know if any of you have heard of this thing with 2 types of cancer at one time before.It seems really rare.Well I'm officially wiped out now so I'm heading for bed.Thank you all for your prayers and wishes for him.
Patty
I just got home from the hospital after being there for 17 hours and I'm still unable to wind down fo I figured I would post now while everything is still fresh.
A few good things happened and some very peculiar.
The surgeon found first of all that the cancer in his mouth was not as extensive as he thought.He removed the tumor,the left side of his tongue and some of the back of his throat.Now,this is where is gets weird.The cancer in his neck was actually more than he expected.In the doctors own words he removed a great deal of the left side of his neck.He called this an extensive radical neck resection.What he thinks he found in his neck are melanoma mets and lesions but he believes that he has some carcinoma too.He said this is quite unusual but he'll have to wait for the path results to say if he is right.Has anyone ever heard of having 2 kinds of cancer in one area?
The surgeon says that he got all the cancer,and he would not need plastic surgery.The bad thing is the trach tube is going to stay in for months,due to the damage in his neck.I guess I'll find out more in the coming days.The original prognosis was so different but he said that he still feels that he got it all.He has to stay in the critical care unit until tomorrow then he'll go to icu for a day or so.He still feels he'll remain in the hospital for 2 weeks.I asked him about his future and he wants to wait for the path results but feels that the mets in his neck area were extreme.He now feels that somewhere in his neck was the point of origin and it metastized to his tongue.I was so confused because we've been told all along it was the other way around.He said he won't able to talk for months and when he starts to he'll need extensive help with eating and swallowing.We were all very tired so I hope to get more answers tomorrow.
I'd like to know if any of you have heard of this thing with 2 types of cancer at one time before.It seems really rare.Well I'm officially wiped out now so I'm heading for bed.Thank you all for your prayers and wishes for him.
Patty
