Kaykay,

Eventually this disease gets ugly and painful. I know that when my recurrence happened I developed severe pain when the tumor invaded a space occupied by a bundle of nerves. One day I'm fine and the next day I am in severe pain.

My brother had a diagnosis similar to your father. He went through surgery and radiation and is good now 1 year out. He still has his vocal chords but speaks with a gravelly voice. He eats soft foods and is working his way up to full meals but does not need a feeding tube.

Your dad will have to wait a bit before they give him a treatment plan and it will be hard for anyone here to give you much advice until then. I would recommend he get a second opinion no matter what they come back with. Different places have different approaches. Try and get to a Comprehensive Cancer Center if you can.


Kelly
Male
48, SCC (Soft Palet) Rt.,
Stage 1, T3n0m0,
Dx, 8-09, Start IMRT 35 9-2-09 end 10-21-09
04-20-10 NED
8-11 recurrence, node rt. neck N2b
10-11 33 IMRT w/chemo wkly
3-12-12 PET - residual cancer
4-12 5 treatments with Cyberknife & Erbitux
6-19-12 Pet scan CLEAR
12-3-12 PET - CLEAR