We finally got some good news, in fact, the first good news we've had since we started this journey just about a month ago. My husbands original diagnosis was a tumor at the base of his tongue with lymph node involvement and a nodule in his left lung that appeared malignant according to the PET scan.

Well, last week he had a needle biopsy of the left lung. On Monday they called and said they did not have valid tissue from the biopsy and that the procedure would have to be repeated. Well we had the procedure repeated at a different hospital that had a pathologist who reviewed the samples as they were taken to be certain there was valid tissue. On Friday we got the call, and now the repeat procedure makes sense (whereas it really made us mad to begin with.) The second biopsy has confirmed that the nodule in the lung is NOT malignant. Even though he had been through five courses of different anti-biotics before his diagnosis - he has some type of infection in his lung that caused a false positive on the PET scan. They are now "growing" the culture to determine what it is and how to treat it.

He still has the tongue tumor and lymph nodes to deal with but - you have never seen two happier people than to find out there is no metastises to his lung. The oral surgeon is going to remove the necessary teeth this coming week and treatment should start the following week, which, as is apparently true with most folks will be a combined regimen of chemo and radiation.

I'm sure you know what a relief it has been to us that his lung is negative. He had the Bardport installed Friday for his chemo and I'm having a hard time convincing him to keep his activities down. It's like he's in a race to get as much done before treatment starts as he can.

Just wanted to share the good news. Your support has truly been appreciated. I know I'll be leaning on you guys as we go through the next couple of tough months, but at least we've narrowed down the battlefield a bit.