Wednesday, July 1, 2009

First News Part II

Continuing on,

Yesterday i had a biopsy done on my throat and my status was changed, instead of a stage 2 throat cancer i am now somewhere in the stage 3 to 4 range, the mass is good sized, most of my right tonsil is gone, there is lymph node involvement, where i am finally placed with be dependent on what the PET/CT scan shows, if it shows that the cancer has spread to the other parts of my body it will be a stage 4, if it is still in my throat its will be a stage 3.

Just so you know, stage 4 = really bad.

So what to do? i have three options depending on the PET/CT scan, they are.

1. Radiation / Chemotherapy, High doses of both, good side effect? i will save on the electric bill, and lose some weight. Kidding aside, the side effects as most know is that you get sick, some people don't, some people do, but i will lose some weight. The doctors like my size now, mass = stored fat=stored up fuel so if i do lose the weight they expect i should be in better shape then say some fitness freak without an once of fat on his body, whoohoo it paid off. weight loss in the 50-70 pound area.
2. Surgery / Radiation / Chemotherapy, same as above, but with me being the target of team of surgeon's who have not won a game of "Operation" since before med school. they will be less radiation/chemotherapy involved from what i understand, but still a 60-90 pound weight loss.
3. Pet/CT scan comes back bad, shows a bunch of areas involved, well most of you know me and know what decision i will make. Its not me giving up, its me being a believer in a good quality of life, i would want to see some people, i have a little nephew in Illinois i have not seen, and i would rather do that then be a knife block when no good will come from it.

Thanks where it stands now, my next meeting is Monday July 06 at 16.00, i will post after that meeting.

As i mentioned before, i do not smoke, i do not drink, well that is till now, i had a few drinks over the last few days, and plan on a few more over the next few days, Doc says its OK as long as i don't drink and drive.

if you are interested in more information, i suggest the site listed below

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/oropharyngeal/patient


Corhou99

2 comments:

Mark said...

Cory, there is someone else that this blog will help... you.

Strange, I have been thinking a lot about this kind of stuff lately. What would I do if I found myself in the same position you are now?

That is another person you are helping already with this blog... me.

Unknown said...

Hey,

Thinking about you the whole morning. I am so sorry, that you have to go through this.
Hopefully the test results will be better than expected. You have to think positive, no matter what.

Milan