Hi my name is Pat and my husband has been diagonsed with Squamous Cell cancer. The adventure started on April 3rd when they thought they were taking a cycst from his lymph node and found out it was full of cancer. The surgeon just said that was not the primary cancer and our lives were going to change. He did a CT scan and found something suspious at the back of the tongue and at first they thought the pancreas as well. They sent him to Iowa City the University for a an appt with ENT. They explained that he had Squamous Cell cancer and thought that the primary was at the base of his tongue. When I asked what stage they said three or four because it was in the lymph nodes, they said 90% cure rate. I still to this day do not understand how those two things go together.
We started our chemo and radiation in early May. They gave him Cisplastin for chemo and he did not do so good. His kidney's were failing and they thought there would be permanment damage but now have told us that they are back to full function.
They now have changed his chemo to weekly and he does two types. One is the sister to the Cisplastin not as strong. He still gets pretty sick but at least he can function.
He just got a sore on the outside of his neck from radiation. It really looks bad and we have been bathing it with special solution. We are not half way through our 7 weeks of radiation. He already has his peg tube they put that in when his kidneys started to fail. He has still be able to eat but not much, he has lost about 16 lbs. Today he said that his throat is starting to hurt pretty bad.
Looking forward to meeting others that are on this journey
One Day At A Time
Pat