Jim,
Hello from another Texan. I was diagnosed a few months before you, July 2002 and finsihed chemo/radiation in Sept. 2002. Congratulations on your being cancer free for over four years. I had my six month CT scans and Xray last week and I am proud and happy to report that, after four and one-half years I too am still cancer free and living a great life,and looking forward to the five year mark and beyond.

I don't know if there is a similar organization in Dallas, but in Houston we have CanCare in which volunteers, including myself, are assigned new patients with similar diagnoses, in order to provide a little support and mentoring to those about to go through what we have already endured. Your desire to serve others is admirable. My wife now volunteers at MDACC one morning a week, pushing around a cart offering free coffee and hot chocolate to patients and their families.

Your ordeal sounds harder than mine as I had no surgery, other than a trach for a while, and a few esophageal dilations. It sounds like you have done really well young man. Keep up the good work.

From one of the fortunate ones to another.

Danny G.

P.S. Good luck on landing a new head coach for the Cowboys.

Stage IV Base of Tongue SCC
Diagnosed July 1, 2002, chemo and radiation treatments completed beginning of Sept/02.