and healing. Peace of mind to you.

Hang in there and think positive!!

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heal and be well

Be sure to keep us posted. {{hugs}}

terrible time of waiting. Healing blessings all around.

to your husband and hugs and blessings to you Silver.

It is squamous cell cancer, which is what we suspected. They will be doing a panendoscopy in the morning, which means they will give him full anesthesia and go down into his throat with a camera to see if they can find where it began, if it has spread, and take more biopsies. Depending on what they see, there's a possibility they may remove his tonsils, but will not be doing any other surgical procedures at this time. Treatment options range a full spectrum: surgery alone, surgery with radiation, surgery with radiation and chemo, radiation alone, or radiation and chemo. We will know more when the results of the biopsies they take tomorrow come back. Having cancer is nothing new for my husband. He has had cancer for over 30 years. Mostly, he has basal cell, but he had had a few squamous cell cancers, too--although none of those have been in such a dangerous location before. He pays attention to his body, and has become very good at detecting the signs of cancer in his body over the years, so we are hoping that we caught it in time. Your love and support means a lot to me. Thank you all. Blessings...

Keep us posted.

Much healing light and loving energies to you both.

Holding you both in the light.

Love & peace,
japple

which is a horrible procedure for adults. He has been in intense pain ever since--can barely swallow anything without incredible pain, even while on heavy-duty pain meds. The doctor is hoping that we caught it in time, and that removing the tonsil that we know was cancerous will be all that's needed. But nothing is for sure yet. He goes for a CAT-scan this coming Wednesday, and then a follow-up with the doctor on Thursday. We should know something more definitive at that time. Still hoping for the best!

So sorry to hear about the pain after surgery. That must be miserable to endure. Here's hope it quickly dissipates and he can swallow without pain. Keep us posted on the updates.

will let him have it, ginger tea might help his throat pain.

First of all, thank you all so much for your kind words, your suggestions, and your shared energy for healing. It is much appreciated.

We heard from the doctor today. I didn't get to talk to him. My husband answered the phone. So, I am going off what he says the doctor said and the notes he took while on the phone. He says the doctor said that he identified the primary source of the cancer as being in the base of the tongue, which is not what we were hoping to hear. We were hoping it was in the tonsil that was removed. That biopsy is being sent back to the lab to further determine if it is "HPV positive" vs. "HPV negative." He said he believes it will test to be "HPV positive," which is the better of the two possibilities. A positive HPV means that my husband will have chemo and radiation. A negative HPV will mean more surgery, and possibly debilitating surgery, including removal of parts of the tongue and throat muscles and nerves. So, we are hoping for HPV positive and chemo and radiation. At the very least, he is going to have to do chemo and radiation. At the wost, he will have more surgery, which may leave him even worse disabled (he is already a disabled Vietnam vet)--I am thinking possibly unable to eat normally? We will know more after meeting with the doctor on Thursday.

Healing energies to your husband - know that you are both surrounded by love.

So sorry for the pain and trials you are experiencing. Sending light and love to surround you both...

I'm so sorry I haven't been back here to update this thread for several weeks. Things have been so crazy that I've hardly had time for anything but keeping appointments and trying to keep up with my job.

Since I last posted, in addition to the tonsillectomy I already mentioned, they have done surgery to insert a PEG feeding tube in his stomach, which was much more painful for him than they had led us to believe. He will need that, they say, because after about the second week of radiation treatments, he will no longer be able to swallow anything (until he can heal after the treatments end), so I will have to administer feedings with the tube for him.

They also pulled ALL his remaining teeth, so he has no teeth at all now. This is in preparation for radiation, they said, because these teeth needed to be pulled anyway and it can't be done after radiation because the bone wouldn't heal correctly. That was pretty painful, too.

Then, today, they inserted an intravenous port in his chest that will be used for the chemo treatments. So far, he hasn't had a lot of pain with that--just some discomfort. He has had a rough few weeks already, though.

We did learn that his cancer is the type caused by the HPV virus, which is a good thing because that kind responds well to radiation and chemo, so the doctors have said they expect the treatments to be successful.

We have a week off from appointments, then he begins chemo (every 3 weeks) and radiation treatments (5 days a week) the last week of this month, which will continue for 7 weeks. I will do my best to pop in and give an update now and then, but I know it's going to be really hectic.

I appreciate all the positive energy and prayers from you folks. I know it helps. Bless you all.

Here's something interesting. Unfortunately, they've said my husband will most likely lose the function of his saliva glands due to the radiation treatments. They won't work any more. BUT they have a dentist on staff at the hospital who is trained in acupuncture and has had a lot of success using acupuncture to restore some functioning to the saliva glands in patients like my husband, so they are going to get him in to see this guy once the treatments are over. What I find MOST interesting about this is that this is a military hospital (Air Force), and they have sanctioned acupuncture treatments for patients there. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this!

For Rapid healing and absolutely NO pain!!!!

My heart goes out to your husband - such an ordeal - and to you because you're suffering too watching a loved one endure so much pain.

A dear friend has just finished a second course of chemo and radiation and it seems like they have refined the treatment so that a cancer patient can still function to a significant degree. My friend has had a rough go, but he doesn't seem as weak or debilitated as I remember friends being in the past on chemo and radiation.

It's misery still and all, but it's good that doctors have become more precise and less destructive in their cancer fighting methods.

and I hope his cancer just up and disappears!

Oh how hard for you both!

Hopes and prayers for much time without pain!

direction, for the highest good of all involved. Bless you.

I hope you have a good outcome.

Just wanted to let you all know... the verdict is in, and all 3 doctors (2 oncologists and the ENT surgeon), plus the radiologists, agree that in my husband's PETscan done on July 9, there is NO SIGN OF CANCER. This was also confirmed by physical examination. "Perfectly normal" are the words we heard. Needless, to say, we are VERY happy! Just thought it might be nice to let you know that this story has a happy ending.

for letting us know the good news.

This is not to say it has been easy. He went through a grueling 7-week course of concurrent chemo and radiation for which we had to make 2-hour round-trip drives five days a week. The last chemo treatment was a doozy. It messed up so many chemical balances in his body that he ended up in the hospital twice for 5 days each time (and the hospital he was in is an hour's drive for me). That was very scary. But he survived. I think it was a combination of 1) having a crack team of knowledgeable and caring doctors and nurses working to save him, 2) my hard work trying to meet his nutritional needs without relying entirely on the heavily sugar-laden feeding formulas most people use when doing this, such as Ensure or Boost (Sugar feeds cancer, right? The main ingredient in these formulas is high-fructose corn syrup. Yuck! So, we invested in a heavy-duty blender so I could supply at least SOME liquefied foods for him that were actually REAL food.), and 3) positive thinking and visualization, along with all the prayers and good thoughts from people far and wide of so many different faiths and spiritual practices. But it was all worth it. We stuck with it, didn't give up, and battled hard. So, at this point, it appears we have won, and I am ever so grateful--to all the powers-that-be, and to each and every one of you who sent good thoughts, blessings, and prayers our way. Bless all of you!

ETA: He is not without some side effects as well. He has lost a lot of saliva glands to the radiation, so eating is not easy. He needs to gain back about 30 pounds he lost (and he was skinny to begin with). That is exacerbated by having no teeth. We are trying to get them to make him some dentures, but that may take several more months to accomplish. He also has impaired kidney function from the last bout of chemo. That just means he has to take salt tablets to keep his sodium levels up, though, so it could be worse. They say that may level out and improve with time, too. All in all, these things are a small price to pay for LIFE.