Brian, I will leave this up to you. Not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum or not. (Big waves to you....you are such a blessing!)
I've got to share something that I can't talk to my closest friends or family members about.
My husband was diagnosed with stage III squamous cell carcinoma of the left tonsil and floor of the mouth on 8-14-02. Since then he has had 42 rounds of radiation and 2 cycles (5 days each) of cisplatin and 5-FU.
After nailing treatment and not even using his PEG tube once, he had follow up scans after treatment which showed a spot on the right lung. There was no way to biopsy this without surgery and he had the top third of his lung removed on March 6,2003. Thank God! the biopsy of the lung came back benign, but I can't seem to shake him out of his depression. He has resumed smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and drinking 7-12 beers a day. I can't seem to convince him of a reason to fight these demons no matter what I do. He was always a take charge person. He supervised up to 500 employees on a daily basis.
Is there anything I can do? I see him giving up, when he ought to be giving this the fight of his life. I've talked to him about counseling, but he doesn't want any part of it. Meanwhile, my children and I live on eggshells. We never know when Dad is going to have a "good" day.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for this forum. I get so frustrated. I keep thinking that the worst is behind us, but he refuses to live like it.
Mandi