Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. I am so sorry I have not been able to update. The past few months have been so draining for all of us that I have not spent much time on the computer.

On June 3rd my father underwent his surgery. It took all in all about 6 hours to complete. He had much removed - 4 lymph nodes, 3 inches of jaw, soft palate, some tongue, tonsils, tumor itself, teeth, soft tissue. He spent from Tuesday until Friday in ICU. Slowly drainage tube and catheters were removed and he was weened from the ventilator on Thursday and Friday. Probably the most difficult things for him was the constant need for suction in his mouth, learning to deal with the trach hole and the feeding tube in his nose. He was discharged on Sunday -less than a full week after his surgery. He was doing very well. He came home where my mom became a nurse overnight. She cared for his feeding tubes and also his trach. The feeding tube was left in for 2 weeks following the surgery. Unfortunately he developed an infection in his trach which caused the stoma to remain unhealed for about 4-5 weeks. He also had some problems with drainage and infection in his incision. This was taken care of with antibiotics and another surgery. July 15th he was operated on again to remove crystallization on the bone and correct the drainage issues. July 18th he had surgery again to insert his PEG tube. We had a scare that there was a possible bone infection in his jaw but after further testing it was diagnosed that everything was fine. We were so thankful. The bone infection would have mean iv antibiotics for at least 1 month - delaying radiation and chemo even longer. So, now we are heading to the home stretch. Chemo and Radiation will begin tomorrow. Chemo will be once a week for 6 weeks and he will have 36 radiation treatments.

I have heard that the radiation is hard and possibly worse to endure than the surgery itself - But everyone has a different experience. Hopefully all will go well and he will be finished in mid- October.

His spirits are good. Around the beginning of July he was not handling things so well. The second surgery took alot out of him and the possibility of a bone infection just made everything worse for him. But, now that he is progressing again and beginning treatments he is much happier and ready to fight this. It has been a rough summer. He only has 2 teeth right now and has a hole in his soft palate which makes it very difficult to eat. He is also numb on his whole right side. He is basically on a soft diet and still drinking the Ensure drinks daily to keep his nutrition up. Right now he is very active - working outside, remodeling a bathroom, etc. He is hoping that the radiation and chemo dont keep him in bed and in too much pain.

To answer your question about his diagnosis - This spring he had what he thought was an ulcer in the back of his mouth. After a week he made an appt with his PCP because it was getting worse and becoming very painful. He also began to endure constant earraches. The PCP felt it might be cancerous so an appt was made with an otolaryngologist. After waiting 3 months to get in to see a doctor (ridiculous!) the cancer was growing rapidly and putting him in constant pain. A biopsy (scrape) was done of the tumor along with PET, dental, MRI, and CAT scans and cancer was diagnosed. Surgery was scheduled for about 3 weeks later.

Thank you again. I will keep checking in. I hope that I may be of help to someone who is going through something similar.

How soon do the side effects from the chemo and radiation begin? Do the burns show right away and does the sickness start immediately from the chemo?

Sending my best to all of you!
Renee