Hi guys,

Well, here I go again. August 15th would have been my 10th anniversary of being cancer free from the second bout of oral cancer and I�m not going to get to celebrate it. I have just been diagnosed with a Stage I squamous cell lesion of 1.5 cm on the left hypo pharynx. The full body PET/CT and MRI show no mets which is good.

Since I have already had a full course of radiation, the tumor board is recommending surgery to remove this from my neck. It is unfortunately too close to the carotid artery for them to be able to remove it with the DaVinci Robot so they will have to cut me open. I will look like I went through a guillotine. They will most likely need to remove an artery from my arm to repair my throat and then a piece of skin from my thigh to repair my arm.

Surgery is scheduled for July 6 early am at HUP (U of Penn) and is expected to take 10 hours, same surgeon as before so I have confidence. I will be in ICU initially and in hospital 5-7 days. I will have a nasal feeding tube until the neck heals and the swelling goes down and I am able to eat � at least two weeks. I will not be able to talk until the swelling goes down � hopefully before two weeks. Current plan is for me to be sent home with home health care and my sister will take care of me for the first week. I will have to see how I feel after this surgery to see if that plan will work. I am expected to be out on disability for 8 weeks. I have no family or firends nearby so uill be doing this alone which is rather scary.

Any of you who have had similar surgery, please tell me what to expect from the arm and the leg. Will it be painful and for how long? Anything you can tell me about it will help.

All I wanted for this summer was to go to the beach and relax. I can�t believe this is happening to me again.

Take care,
Eileen

P.S. the report said this one is 70% P-16 positive, does that mean I'm HPV positive?