If anyone saw the last SPOHNC newsletter there was an interesting story about a couple that had both experienced oral cancer. It is really a great story in many ways. A wife gets the diagnosis AFTER receiving a neck dissection when she thought she was going in for a biopsy and it is 5 years after her husband was diagnosed with SCC. It tells a lot about her creating a set of paintings from a collection of photos that were taken during her treatment. In addition, her husband belongs to a bike club in Chicago that happens to have a member of th US Postal Team and the wife requests an autographed photo of Lance Armstrong to give to her husband on his 50th birthday. After she forgot about it for a while her husband received a phone call from the bike club friend when he returns from training in Spain and he mentions their cancer story with Lance and they end up with an autographed US Postal team jersey that read: "to the Chambers family: Never give up! Lance Armstrong." Her paintings are her depicted as different characters such as: Bride of Frankenstein, Van Gogh, Hannibel Lecter, Marcel Marceau, etc., that were done for a specific reason through the course of her treatment. She then did one titled "Me as Lance Armstrong" wearing the yellow jersey.

You can view her "In Character" series at: http://members.aol.com/kathyduzart/ if you are interested.

It was a very touching story and pretty amazing but I hid it from Susan so she wouldn't worry.

Ed

SCC Stage IV, BOT, T2N2bM0
Cisplatin/5FU x 3, 40 days radiation
Diagnosis 07/21/03 tx completed 10/08/03
Post Radiation Lower Motor Neuron Syndrome 3/08.
Cervical Spinal Stenosis 01/11
Cervical Myelitis 09/12
Thoracic Paraplegia 10/12
Dysautonomia 11/12
Hospice care 09/12-01/13.
COPD 01/14
Intermittent CHF 6/15
Feeding tube NPO 03/16
VFI 12/2016
ORN 12/2017
Cardiac Event 06/2018
Bilateral VFI 01/2021
Thoracotomy Bilobectomy 01/2022
Bilateral VFI 05/2022
Total Laryngectomy 01/2023