Hello all,

I hope you're all keeping your spirits up and carrying on....

Sorry, I haven't written in awhile since my dear brother, only in his 50th year, got the diagnosis of throat cancer 9 months ago.

He lived through the neck surgery, 12 back teeth being pulled, the feeding tube for 3 months, 33 radiation & 6 weeks of chemo, the terrible Oxycontin, then back to full-time work with the Post Office after 6 months from the surgery date.

Now this: a recent lung scan, to a CT scan, to a PET scan scheduled for 2/28: looks like little white specs on the right lung, but a "worrisome mass" at the bottom of the right lung.

Chemo Dr. of the cancer team; says this is very, very bad news: "you can die."

John stopped twice on the phone call with me: to go away, "there's so much I still wanted to do...." Wife, Barbara, started crying. John is 20-year career Air Force veteran: tough, brave, you know.

Any comforting words from you kind souls would be so helpful......

I tried to tell John, well, maybe the CT scan is wrong, maybe it's an infection or something else...

Thank you very much for listenting.
Judy
I'm only 1 year older than brother John, he lives in Washington, I'm in Utah.

Judy, my heart goes out to you and your brother and his family. What difficult news to hear! Do they plan to do any more diagnostic tests? a biopsy? I would try to get into "neutral" on it until you know absolutely for certain that you are dealing with more cancer. Inflammations and infections can show up as questionable areas. I hope hope hope that is what it turns out to be!! Please keep us posted.

Judy - How difficult it must have been for your brother and his family to get the worrisome news after all he's been through but I certainly agree with Colleen that it's better to wait for more definitive information before thinking the worst. I think the hardest time to cope with is that "in between time" when you don't know for sure what is really happening and you're just kind of waiting to start fighting whatever it is. It is possible, too, you may be right in what you told John. In my son's case, the CT scan showed a possible cancer cell on his lymph node but when they did the surgery, and tested the tissue they found that there was no cancer cell in the lymph node. I certainly hope that it is a positive outcome for John. Let us know what happens.

Judy I echo Colleen and Ann-Marie's sentiments. Many of us have had spots on Lung that have turned up negative for cancer.I hope that John's does as well. One question I have is the dr's statement that this is very bad news, you can die.
My Dr's have said the same to me but only after a question from me-- what if this is cancer doc?
I hope you get good news. I'm also 50 with a 51 yr old sister and it is such a special relationship. Best wishes, Mark.

Feb. 26th

Thank you, Colleen, Anne-Marie, and Mark D. for your helpful words in response to yesterday's email.

It's good to hear from someone who knows on many levels about throat/oral cancer. I'll try to stay calm, even though the waiting is very difficult. (John and Barbara said the same thing)

My brother, John, and I really have a hard time trying to be/think positively about anything; and this cancer monster brings out the worst of our demons.

Again, thank you for listening.

I'll look for more of your own stories (the descriptions after everyone's name tells part of it...) and I'll keep writing about my brother.

Have a good evening, Judy