Hi all,
This is my first post but have been reading your posts since May. They have helped tremendously. It has been a long road. In May of 03 he had a lesion removed from his right vocal cord, moderate squamous dysplasia was the verdict. He chose to continue to smoke, so he was scoped every three months for follow up. In January he developed a sore throat and found a lump on the left side of his neck. Dx in Feb. with Stage IV scc of the larynx and our road to recovery began in March. He had 2 tx of chemo followed by 39 traditional rad tx that eliminated the cancer from the larynx. He had a ct following tx that showed the lymph node remained. It continued to shrink for the next 3 months. A pet scan on 10/04/05 showed it still remained and he had a mrnd 10/7/05. Pathology showed clear margins and all nodes but the original one were cancer free. He sailed through all this fairly easy. We fought with electrolytes dropping, causing rapid heart beat, still an issue. I believe this is due to his poor nutrition, even with a peg tube. He is one stubborn man. Just refused to eat or use the peg properly. He has moderate dry mouth issues, but can eat almost anything that is not too spicey. In retrospect, we wish we had had the knowledge to demand a ct scan after the orginal lesion was removed as his cancer would have been caught alot earlier. Yes, he has quit smoking. This site has helped me through the tough times. What a great bunch you all are. Muffet