Hello Amy,

My mom is 72 and other than this cancer was in perfect health. The docs were all amazed that she has never been on any meds in her life and that she is as healthy as she is....she comes from good German stock, all of her aunts are still alive and doing well and they are between 85-95 yrs of age.

She is much more passive in her treatment and recovery from rad than I ever thought she would be. Her rad doc said many times that she was doing very well with the treatment and based on some of the posts here I would say she fared better than most. She does not do much, other than lay on the couch. I think she was getting a little better every day until this news. And on top of it all, her older sister (my darling aunt whom I adore) was in a very bad car accident a week ago today and has been in the hospital in critical condition. I dont know if she is going to make it or not! She is a mother of 15. Yes, all hers and all sigle births...good Catholic family, no brith contorl They have called my cousins in from all over the country and it is a wait and see thing now. Although my mom would never complain or say much I am sure she is worried sick about her sister and family. They are very close.

Her ENT did tell us about all the possible complications and quality of life issues after having this surgery. He said that he would not suggest this surgery if he did not think it was a cure and said the recurrence rate is about 30%. I am calling him tomorrow to ask a few more questions. The do nothing and call hospice threw us all for a loop. I feel like he is not telling us something or at least not everything. Maybe he will be more forthcoming if my mom is not in the room. We wont make any decisions until we have a second opinion from UofM Cancer Center.