Interestingly, some months ago my ENT was telling me that if my scans one year post-rad were OK, we could use the other 'C' word, "cured". But he did couch it in terms of statiscal probability over five years.

BTW, since I subsequently did have clean scans, he told me that in my case, the five-year cancer-free likelihood was now at 90% -- From a half-full perspective, that's a low probability of return; for pessimists, that's a 10% chance of return, lots better odds than a lottery ticket!

Yesterday, I was vacuuming the bed of my pickup truck, backing out of it and managed to lose my balance and tumbled out onto the ground -- Could have broken my neck and died, which would have put my probability of being cancer-free at 100% for the last few moments of my life, so what does it really all mean? wink


Age 67 1/2
Ventral Tongue SCC T2N0M0G1 10/05
Anterior Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 6/08
Base of Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 12/08
Three partial glossectomy (10/05,11/05,6/08), PEG, 37 XRT 66.6 Gy 1/06
Neck dissection, trach, PEG & forearm free flap (6/08)
Total glossectomy, trach, PEG & thigh free flap (12/08)
On August 21, 2010 at 9:20 am, Pete went off to play with the ratties in the sky.