Kathy, welcome. I'm so sorry about your husband's diagnosis, and the recent loss of your sister. No wonder you're reeling! I'm glad you found OCF. Your resourcefulness will be a great help to your family in the months ahead. You may worry about helping physically, but -- please trust me on this -- the more important task will be to listen, research and especially love and comfort your husband as only you can.

Have the docs set a treatment plan yet? Where is your husband's tumor?

If your local hospital is a major teaching hospital, that's ideal. Large academic hospitals have better patient outcomes, and your husband's other heart problems make his cancer treatment more complex than most. Of course, not everyone has a choice. If you do, Duke is rated among the country's top 20 cancer centers and has a huge team of head and neck cancer MDs. Wake Forest and the University of NC are also top choices.

Your hospital's social workers can help line up resources. Also, the American Cancer Society has support programs, including volunteers who drive patients to appointments.

Take a deep breath, you are going to get through this --

Lynn


53
T3N2aM0 HPV+
5/26/13 discovered painless superball-sized lymph node in neck
6/26/13 DX SCC R palatine tonsil
7/16/13 TORS tonsillectomy & selective ND, mets to 2 nodes
9/3/13 Cisplatin and rads begin, tolerated 1.5 of 3 planned chemo doses
10/16/13 Treatment ends
Dec 13 Ulcer appears at surgery site
Jan 17 Biopsy -- no cancer!
Feb 17 CT/PET Scan lights up tonsil bed & nasal cavity, docs say probably inflammation, don't panic, rescan when ulcer subsides