Possible good news from my brother. His doctor is doing the biopsy in Dallas today before sending him down to houston and said that the spot in the mouth looked like displaysia (sp). Lets hope the throat turns out as well.

I was told I would be released today. The lung has stopped leaking for now.

Wish us luck.

Wonderful news for you, Kelly, and prayers headed to your brother for the same.
julieann

Prayers to both of you.. Hoping your brother is cancer free.. And you too!

Finally out of hospital after 5 days. I'll be checking in with M.D. Anderson and U of M on Friday to see who can see me first.

I'll have to start on the cancer positive lymph node in the neck first and worry about the lungs as time moves on. Although they could not get a good sample from the lung and the one they did get was negative, I'll have to protect against the worst (and still hope for the best). My brother is heading down to M.D.A. for follow ups and I am praying for the best for him (he has 3 kids).

Life is really tough these days. The tumor in my neck is throwing off a lot of pain and I just want it gone, but they don't want to do anything substantial until they get the lungs figured out

My extended family is freaking out about my brother and looking to me for answers as I have been through this before and I got nothing.

On top of all that my company just got offered the biggest deal in its short history and the CEO (me) just took a three month medical leave of absence.
Oh well, venting tonight, tomorrow is a new day. I still have life in these tired bones and plan on fully exhausting them before I leave this mortal coil.
As bad as I feel, I still am completely convinced that I and my brother will prevail and die of either old age or pulling some stupid stunt like we did back in high school (may need to buy a 68 GTO for that).

Kelly, Good Luck to you and your brother I hope all turns out well.

Take care,
Connie

Kelly, congrats on getting sprung from the hospital. I know how much I detested getting stuck there. Hope you are able to quickly get into MD Anderson to get checked out. Best wishes to your brother as well. How terrible to see more than one person in a family be ill with cancer at the same time. I hope you both can get successfully treated and move on to celebrate many anniversaries of good health!

Spent my first day back home; what a great feeling. I hate long stays in the hospital. I have decided to go to the University of Michigan first next week as MDACC can't see me until late in the week which is when I am already scheduled for U of M. I'll do a follow up at MDACC after that. We will be watching the spots on the lungs for now as another biopsy is probably not a good idea given all the trouble and the inconclusive nature of the last one and the collapsed lung.

The pain now is getting to the point where I just want them to get rid of this lymph node any way possible. It is growing inward and pressing on all kinds of nerves. Woke up this morning and it felt like someone had hit me on the side of the head with a sledge hammer. They gave me lots of pain meds and I was able to get that under control fairly quickly and am now going to go on a schedule to keep ahead of the pain.
I think I am just starting to understand the situation that EZJim has been experiencing these past few years (buddy I have no idea how you have been able to stay so positive).
I am now just hoping that this is one bad lymph node that we can get with a ND. That surgery sounded so scary up until I started in with this pain. Now it looks like a god send if it will kill off this pain.

Scan showed no other nodes involved so I figure they will take most on that side and we can be done with that part of it. I�ll have to worry about re-radiating the area and may just do intense chemo.

I guess its all speculation anyway as the pros from Dover have not had a chance to look me over yet. Its unbelievable how for back that collapsed lung sent me.

Good luck please keep us posted hopefully your lungs have nothing to do with the cancer! Hugs ne blessings to you and your bother - and vent away getting things off your chest is good or your soul!

Hi Kelly,

I hope you get some relief soon.

If your extended family has more questions than you are able to answer, please refer them to the OCF website and forum. I'm sure many people will be able to answer their questions and take a little burden off of your shoulders. You need to focus on what's happening with your treatment.

In the meantime, I hope you can get the pain under control.

Sandy

My brother Chris is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday this week at MDA. The spot on his gums was dysplasia and they are not going to worry about that now. They treated it and it looks OK for the present time.

The lesion on his throat was just under 2 cm and they think there is a 20% � 40% chance that they can get all the cancer in the surgery and he will need no further treatment.

The flip side of that is if they cannot get clear margins; If that�s the case they are going to remove 5 molars, do a modified neck dissection and go through a full round of radiation. He won�t know what the outcome of that is until he wakes up from the surgery. He is hoping for the best case but prepared for the worst case.
Keep him in your prayers if you can.