What are the studies on Smoking realated vs HPV induced causes, differences in response to treatments and odds of reoccurence. My husband never smoked, rarely even has 1 drink and continues to develop complications. His esopaghaus is totally blocked from a radiation induced 4inch scar. He is having a rendevous procedure done at memorial Sloan- Kettering this week. The local ENT said he would be on a peg tube for the rest of his life but at MSK they feel there is a 90% chance they will be able to dialate. Of course as his wife and caregiver I'm terrified that this cancer is going to reoccer.

I want to stress the only proceedures for sure right now are the neck dissection and the dialation. Any operation or cutting on the tongue is a wait and see thing when he has me on the table and can get a better look at area and get a couple biospys, etc. and most likely not going to happen. My particular ENT Dr. is the VERY cautious type and usually spells out ALL the possiblities. IMO...He's just covering all the bases.

The scary thing is...when they put me to sleep on the table...I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to wake up to.

To Jordan 12 and hubby- and Garyock, just want you to know that my fingers are crossed for both of you. Amy

good luck tommorrow gary. will be thinking about you

chad

Gary,
Was thinking about you today wondering if they did the procedure and the biopsy. Lots of prayers and good thoughts sent your way. Let us know....

OK....tomorrow (Thur) is start of Hospital week. I check in at 7am and 1st operation (assuming neck dissection) will be at 8:30am. Dr. is also going to do a dialtation in there somewhere to see if that helps me swallow any better. Determination made be made in day or two weither or not I need a PEG???

I'm on TPN right now since I can't swallow ANYTHING. I was in hospital last week for about for about 5 nights trying to get my nutrition back in order. Hospitals are SOOOOOO boring. They set me up with 'home care service' for the TPN between hospital visits. Piece of cake to set up. Much rather be home sleeping in MY bed. Hospital beds suck...especially for a big guy like me.

It has been a bit frustrating that I was doing so well through out the treatments and even about 6 weeks after before I hit this little bump in the road on the swallowing thing.

Hopefully....this next hospital venture will get me back on track.

I'll let you all know what happened on my return home in about a week.

good luck gary ...remain positive hugs an prayers your way ...maz

OK...finally got out of jail (hospital...same difference to me).

I went in on Thursday about 7am and got released on following Wednesday about 1pm.

Here what was done on 1st day.....

1. Dialation of throat
2. Neck dissection
3. Lumped off about 25% of my lower right tongue (more on this later)
4. Tracheostomy (I'm assuming because of the cutting off of the chunk of the tongue??)
5. Inserted nose feeding tube.

So I wake up in recovery with about a dozen tubes coming out of me from like it seems everyfreakingwhere. I layed there in recovery for about 5 hrs (waiting for ICU room to open up). Finally got moved to ICU and was there about 2 nights.

After moving to the 'floor' (very nice hospital by the way...ranked in top 100). Had a nice private room. Then they stared taking out some tubes 'one at a time'. A drain tube here....an IV there until I was down to only 3 by last day. The Trach, the nose feeding tube, and one of the drainage tubes to neck. Let me give you a little tip on the nose tube if you have it. Always....and I mean ALWAYS grab ahold of it when any nurse comes near you. They stitch that puppy to the end of your nose so it won't pulled out and every time somebody accidentally tugs on it and (and they ALL do)....it hurts like hell. So grab it when any nurse gets within 10 feet of you...give a little slack and hold on for dear life.

A couple/three days into stay....they took me down for x-ray of throat to see how the dialation did, if there were any leaks, etc. Passed that test fine. The next day they took me down for the swallow funtion test (or cookie test as they called it). Did ok with that also so I was qualified to start having 'soft food like scrambled eggs, mashed poatatoes, and of course liquids like Boost, Ensure, etc.

Now...lets talk about the rest of the biggies.

The neck dissection....took out about 30 lymph nodes and ALL tested NEGATIVE...a real good thing.

The tongue surgery was a bit of a surprise but knew it was a possibility going in. My Dr. just didn't like the way it looked (ever after doing a couple biopsys of area...which showed NEGATIVE even). He went ahead and lumped off about 20-25% of my back right tongue...did some more intensive biopsys of piece taken and sure enough found some cancer cells left in loped off area. Glad my Dr. was on the cautios side.

The TRACH was a total uncessary operation imo. I understand maybe the thinking of being very careful with tongue area are after operation....but I was breahting about 95% thru my nose from the get go no problem after operation??? The TRACH caused nothing but a hassle all day long having to be drained about 10 times a day, etc. Was totally glad to lose that thing. There's a HOLE left that Dr says will go away with time.

Get the stitches out Monday on the neck thing.

All in all .... not to shabby.

1. Cancel can't be found anywhere for now
2. Can eat again (even if it is soft stuff) and taste seems to be coming back little by little.
3. Can sleep on my SIDE again......hooray!!!!! To me that's a biggie.....just couldn't get comfortable in hospital bed.

So....about 4 or 5 days ago MUST have the been the BOTTOM to all this????

Now....time to recover by leaps and bounds (hey, I'm thinking positive here).

Glad to hear from you Gary. Sounds like you had a hell of a week!
Good to hear you're back home and making progress.
It won't be long until we're ready for Famous Dave's
Give me a call if I can help.

Good Health,
Chuck

Gary
Can I just tell you I think you are about the most positive and strongesat people I know or don't know for that matter. I give you so much credit for that...and I hope your road to recovery is a fast one cause you deserve it. I wish my husband had a third of your spunk. Glad to hear your cancer free...
All My Best Kerry