The good news is: they got all of the tumor from his jaw, they managed to wean him off the vent, he healed well from his surgery, he fought off the aspiration pneumonia, and he's now in a nursing home less than a mile from his home.

The bad news is: 2 out of 32 lymph nodes were malignant and extracapsular; he has pre-cancerous tissue at the posterior base of his tongue, and the oncologist said no chemo - too sick for that, but wanted to do 7 weeks of radiation 5 times a week, which, not being a doctor, and not even playing one on t.v., I didn't see the point of since my dad is in end stage COPD, has a traech tube and a stomach feeding tube that he will most likely have for the rest of his life, but it was going to be my dad's decision once he got all the info (I just wanted the oncologist to give him a FAIR assessment and tell him what he was facing without radiation, and what he was facing as far as treatment WITH radiation)... the the head of the radiation department came in (last Thursday) and said NO... absolutely not. Can't have it, won't do it; no sense to it; Dad is in "very" end stage COPD and all the radiation would do (as I suspected) is put him through more pain and stress without being of any benefit. He was just transferred to the nursing home for palliative comfort care yesterday, and my mom said she had to tell THEM to plug the machine in and turn it on (not sure WHAT machine - he's in the nursing home because she is so stressed out she can't get things straight. Sounds like the blind leading the blind. I am scheduled to fly up to Chicago again a week from Saturday ...

So, I it's a question as to what will take his life first, the cancer or the COPD. His oncologist wanted to radiate because of the lymph nodes and the fact that the cancer producing agent that caused the tumor "contaminated" his entire mouth (hence the pre-cancerous condition at the base of the tongue). No one is saying how long for the "Very" end stage COPD to take it's toll. End stage COPD can go on for years, but I don't see that happening in this case. I just can't imagine not being able to drink, eat or talk. He can only talk with the talking valve, but his 02 blood level drops so quickly the last time he was on it he was only allowed 3 minutes, and it had been a over a week since he had had it at that time. My mom said she thought that was probably the last time he'd be able to talk ... The nurse said on some of the other times when he wanted to talk that if they put the valve in, he'd code and she refused to do it. No food, no drink, no talking ...

On the other hand, after reading what has been going on with Christy's grandma, I feel like we have a lot to be thankful for after all.