Jack had his second set of PET/CT scans following his second surgery on Sept. 23. We met with his surgeon right afterward. We were devastated to hear, "The cancer is back with a vengeance." This time it is on the left side of the neck and not contained enough to be operable.

We met with his medical oncologist on Oct. 1. He was much more optimistic with us. One big plus is that the cancer has not moved out of the head and neck, especially not being in his chest or lungs. He is going to start Jack on chemo on Oct. 12 using taxol and carboplatin. He has also set up a meeting with the radiation oncologist that gave Jack his treatments 17 months ago. There may be areas out of the field of the last radiation treatments that can be irradiated now. We see him Oct. 7.

Some of you have no doubt been in similar circumstances and can pass on some advise based on your experience. We sure have appreciated what you said when we had the last recurrence. The first few days after the getting the news the cancer was back, I felt like Brett Favre looked after geting his bell rung. I'm thinking more clearly now. I want to be sure we are crossing all the t's and dotting the i's when it comes to a treatment plan.

The oncologists we are seeing are part of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center staff even though they are located in Wausau. They do consut with the Madison doctors and are able to put their patients into clinical trials used in Madison. Do we need more opinions?

Lowanne