Survive Cancer

A brief history of my cancer. On Feb 14th I was told that I has cancer at the base of my tongue and a secondary site at my lymph node which was 2.3 cm by 2.5cm in size.

From here I underwent a complete radiation treatment, and 2 out of 6 of my chemo treatments.

The radiation trashed my throat and I was unable to eat any food by mouth. I had to get a feeding tube and use that to get all my nutrition.

After the radiation was complete on May 15th, I started the recovery period. For 2 months I didn’t make too much progress toward healing, but I guess there were small steps being made. About the 2 month point, I went in for a PET SCAN. I was told then, that there could be some false positives on the scan.

Anyway, when I went in for the reading, they told me that there was no spread of cancer according to the scan and that the primary site was not showing as having any cancer… however, the secondary site was showing a 1.5 cm mass still present and they recommended a resection of the neck which would take out all the lymph nodes on the right side. The other offering was to wait 2 months and have another PET SCAN.

I made the decision… to go in for the surgery. I didn’t want to take any chances that there could still be cancer in there. So, I had the 5 hour surgery and today, they took the staples out (53 of them) and it hurts a lot.

But the pathology report was that there was no cancer found… the mass that they took out was radiation damage in the tissue. So… I am Cancer Free. I am a survivor. I have to see my doctor once a month for the next 2 years to make sure that it doesn’t come back. I will have PET SCANS and other tests, probably… but, right now, this moment… I am CANCER FREE and I am feeling great about that.

Now, the road to healing and recovery is my path…

All is right in my world.

I know that it is still early in my treatment.. I have had 2 chemotherapy sessions and those are the easiest for me right now. I will have completed 2 weeks of radiation tomorrow (I started on a Thursday with my first treatment and so out of 35 treatments I will be 10 done and 25 to go).

The Radiation is already starting to tear up my mouth. My taste is not gone, yet… but it taste like I’m sucking on a salt lick. My mouth is burning most of the time and my throat is getting a little sore.

The Chemotherapy that they have me following is not really chemical… it is more a biological. I’m taking Erbitux, which is a mono-clonal antibody that they harvest from mice. The #1 side effect is if you are allergic to it. The pre-meds that they give me feel worst than the actual medication. What it does is stops the cell from reproducing… it will affect all fact growing cells. So, of course it will affect my skin, digestive track (gi track) and nails and hair. They are suppose to start this therapy a week before radiation, but that didn’t happen… no problem.

So far… so good. I’ll write again later to let you all know how its going.

Blessings,

Shadowchilde

Yes… I have Cancer. I discovered that I have it and it was confirmed last week. This coming Wednesday I am going to the Cancer Center and discuss the treatments and schedule.

It certainly is a wake up call to realize that this is real and not something that everyone else gets. It is affecting me and I need to learn as much as I can and so whatever it takes to make sure that I survive.

it sure is scary though. I’m lucky enough to have a loving husband, daughter, in-laws and friends that are all my support group. I know that I can beat this.

Blessings,

Shadowchilde