Flyboy's Journey with Squamous Cell Carcinomas, Laryngeal a...

How can this be? My husband has never smoked a day in his life. We were told it was HPV related which doctors are seeing more of.

Two needle biopsies were inconclusive. Required surgery to get a better tissue sample and thorough check of the mouth and throat. At least no other areas were discovered.

Back in December in a routine visit with his primary physician, since he had a cold it was thought that the lump on the left side of his neck was a swollen gland. Took 2 more months to realize that it wasn't going away and after 2 CT scans and a PET scan it was determined that the primary site was at the base of his tongue and it had metastasized to one lymph node which is what the doctor was feeling last December. I look back and wish, wish,wish that I had insisted he get it checked out then and we could be done with all this now. Don't know if the delay of a few months would have made any difference in the advancement, perhaps the damage was already done.

I wouldn't say easy to do, but it doesn't take much effort to sit in a chair for 3 hours to have the chemo. Only had 1 with the second one scheduled for next week. Main side effects were nausea and fatigue. My husband thought he could continue to work in between but thank goodness he took a medical leave from work. I don't see how he could work much, if at all some days. I really hated walking into this big room with 8 recliners. Seemed so impersonal. Everyone was very nice, but neither one of us felt at all comfortable. Maybe you can't ever be. Some of the other patients wanted to tell us their story, but after the first man talked about how he'd been doing this for 2 1/2 years, we kind of shut the rest out. Not exactly what you want to hear on Day 1:((. Day 2 was ok, not feeling too bad, but by day 3 the effects were really hitting hard. Feeling much better by day 5

I understand getting bolted down to the table in that dreaded mask is getting more and more difficult. He is only on treatment #13 with 22 to go. Even tho the radiation treatment only takes about 15 minutes, we have a 65 minute drive each way. Makes for a tiring day, sometimes my husband will drive himself but some days he needs a driver. Luckily we have many friends and family to help out as I am trying to work my full time job. Hard to keep everyone happy.

After 10 radiation treatments and 1 chemo my husband began to get a really sore throat, his jaw hurts to open, his mouth is sore,, nothing tastes good. He is constantly sipping water for a dry throat and it's difficult to eat most foods, especially anything dry like breads. After today's visit with his doctor, it was decided he needed to start using his feeding tube which was put in a few weeks ago. He is not getting enough nourishment with what he is eating or even drinking Boost drinks, so hopefully the feeding tube formula will help

My husband actually finished his treatments at the end of June. He had 35 radiations with 3 chemos thrown in. It was by far the most horrible experience we've been thru and we hope and pray we never have to go thru this again. Many, many times thru treatments my husband would say that if he knew it would get this bad , he might not have gone thru with it. I don't know if that's true, but I can certainly understand why some people choose not to.

If remission means that the cancer is gone, then yes we have reason to celebrate. Even tho my husband finished treatments June 30, it had really taken a toll on his whole being. It took him about 3 weeks before he felt like he was coming out of the "fog", but with very small steps thru the next 6 weeks, he has improved 1000% since mid July. CT scan and PET scan both show the area clear and a scheduled surgery for this week was cancelled. He is still trying to get his strength back and is doing more and more each day. His biggest side effect still is dealing with dry mouth and difficulty eating normally. Still using feeding tube but about 1/2 calorie intake is regular food and 1/2 with jevity. Hopefully he can get that removed in October. He sees all 3 doctors mid October so maybe we are winding down.