I spoke with Dr. Nancy Lee today who is a head and neck radiation oncologist. She suggested we do the chemo first to get the tumor down to a manageable size and then she's referring me to Procure in Somerset, NJ, for proton therapy. Anyone here familiar with this treatment?

Time is of the essence, so I must start chemo right away, which will start on Tuesday. The tumor basically went from the size of a quarter to my guess is now the size of an orange in 2 months! The pain gets worse day by day. This is truly frightening.

I am so glad we switched to MSKCC. Although we were assured by more than one doctor at Sloan that the treatment I had in Morristown is pretty standard, going foward, Sloan has already given us more options. I'm not saying I'm not going to investigate your suggestion to go to Beth Israel, I'm just saying that right now I know that chemo is the only bet to prevent this tumor from choking me to death.

10/2/12 Surgery Dx Stage II SCC RLT
11/12/12 Further tongue resec and SND. 3 of 22 lymph + SCC Stage IVa
11/22/12 Hospitalized for infection incision at neck
12/5/13 PET scan tumor at BOT
12/26/12-2/27/13 RT and Cisplatin
4/1/13-5/17/13 3 rounds of Cisplatin, Taxotere and 5-FU
7/19/13 Pet Scan possible recurrence
8/23/13 2nd op at MSKCC, CT Scan
8/31/13 MRI. Both show sizeable mass
9/11/13 CT-guided needle BX + SCC
10/1/13 Erbitux, Cisplatin and Taxotere
2/14/14 Passed away