I want to thank Dan G. for his kind words about my long-time survival with head and neck cancer in my oral cavity. I would also like to introduce myself and, in time, come to know all of you who are "veterans" on this web site.
I am a 4-time cancer patient who has managed to survive since 1980. In that year, while finishing my doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame, I was diagnosed with a mucoepidermoid adenocarcinoma of the hard palate. I was only 33 years of age at the time. Needless to say, my wife and I were devastated with the diagnosis. Little did we know that it would be the first step in a long and arduous journey our family was to take.
To treat the malignancy, I underwent surgery and radiation therapy. In the aftermath, I suffered the consequences so common to those two treatments, especially the latter. Left with a hole in the roof of my mouth after my partial palatectomy/maxillectomy, I was fitted with a prosthesis which allowed me to eat and speak relatively well. By the end of 1981 I had graduated from N.D. and was well on the way to recovery, looking forward to my five-year goal of survival. Unfortunately, not all was to proceed as I had envisioned.
In 1985, a few months short of my 5-year anniversary, I was diagnosed with an osteogenic sarcoma in the upper jaw (maxilla). I was told later on that the malignancy in the bone had been caused by the 1981 radiation treatments. After more surgery and the further removal of my palate and maxilla, I tried to get on with my life. But within one year (1986), cancer struck again in my oral cavity. This time I lost the rest of my palate and maxilla and also had to have my right eye removed because the cancer had invaded the orbit around the eye. After more surgery and radiation, the doctors removed bone from my right hip in order to implant it into my maxilla, in effect making an artificial upper jaw with the inevitable prosthesis that allowed me to eat and speak at about an 80% level of competency.
Things went well after this third occurence of cancer. I moved to Houston, TX, and began working at the Federal Court. It was during this period of time that I met Dan G.
After a decade or more of being cancer-free, I thought my life had returned to normalcy and that cancer was a thing of the past. But, as you know, cancer is a persistent and persevering adversary that strikes when least expected. In 2000 I was diagnosed once again with the same malignant tumor I had had 20 years previously. The tumor forced me to retire from my job and concentrate full-time on my struggle with the disease. From 2000 until the present, I have undergone 7 surgeries. At first the doctors removed the fibula (one of 2 bones that attach the knee and ankle) from my left leg to rebuild my maxilla since the hip bone implant had been compromised by the tumor. After the operation I was in bad shape. I could not walk for a few weeks until I began using crutches. And I did not have a prosthesis yet, so I had to rely on a feeding tube in my stomach. My speech was horrible and people had a hard time understanding me. My facial deformity became worse as did all the emotional and psychological problems that go along with facial deformation. But afetr a few months I was beginning to recover well. It was at that time that the fibula implant in my maxilla died due to a lack of blood supply. Back to the operating room! This time I had the fibula from my other leg removed and implanted into my upper jaw. To the present time, the implant has not been rejected by my body and I am now waiting for a prosthesis to be made.
This is a brief review of my experiences as a long time survivor of cancer in the oral cavity. It does not go into many aspects of my experience such as how I dealt with the 4 occurences, how my family has coped, etc. I hope to talk about these aspects in future discusions with all of you. If there is one thing that I have learned over the past 22 years in my fight against this insidious disease, it is that one's attitude is extremely important in fighting the disease. The fight against cancer has to be waged on the physical as well as the mental level. It is an unceasing fight. Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient. But the experience of having cancer is not all negative. It can provide the patient with different perspectives concerning those things in life that are deemed important. It can also unify families against a common enemy (as well as throw families into complete disarray).
I hope this brief insight into my cancer experience will prove worthwhile to those of you who read this. I would be glad to receive reaponses from you at your convenience and look forward to your support as well as offering my own to you.
Stay healthy,
Bill