Appointment with Dr. Hardacre

Dad had his appointment with Dr. Hardacre this afternoon and my head is literally hurting with all the information that was provided to us. Just hang in there as I try to relay most of it to you. To re-radiate or not? That is the question. The answer right now is to wait a few weeks before making that decision. Dr. Hardacre wants to see another PET scan in 3 weeks before going any further and he has a call in to Dr. James Bonner, a radiation oncologist from UAB who is apparently one of the best in the area and we are lucky to have him in our back yard! He is known for his work in head and neck cancers. We look forward to hearing what he has to say.

Dr. Hardacre explained several scenarios to us regarding the question as to whether or not to radiate. In simple terms...Can it be done? Yes. Are there severe risks involved? Yes. Do the risk out weigh the benefits? That we don't know. Many people have been re-radiated with great success. In these cases, there is usually a specific mass or tumor that the radiologist is going for. In Dad's case, this past surgery removed everything that they could see or feel so as far as we know there is no more cancer in there. The worry is that given the past history since the first tumor appeared, that there may be more cancer cells out there waiting to appear. Therefore getting more radiation would help destroy them. The problem is that radiation seriously damages your body and certain body parts can only take so much and then they are done. (such as main arteries, the spinal cord, the throat, etc) He has already had lots of radiation. So there is the question again! He kept telling us that he fits in this "gray area" where there is no definite yes or no answer. Should we? Yes...chances are there are more cancer cells. No...because we don't even know if there is any more cancer so why put your body through that and possible life long side effects if we don't need to? What if there are cancer cells left in the area but they are not getting fed and never act up? What if they are done? Then to put your body through radiation that you don't need would be silly!

I pray this doctor that Dr. Hardacre is looking to for answers will help in our decision. I feel really good about it. I am not discouraged at all. I have faith in my God that HE can heal and destroy these cancers. I have faith and I hope you do too. I threw that out there to Dr. Hardacre..I said, "I just think that this was it and no more cancers are going to act up..I have faith." And he said. "and that very well could be!"

So for now we are waiting to hear back from this new doctor in our lives, Dr. Bonner. He may have a definite answer, he may want to see Dad, he may want to just review it all with Dr. Hardacre. We will see. Until then continue to pray. Please thank God for all that he has done this far.. we can never overlook the blessings he has given us through this all. Pray for the doctors as they help us to determine what to do. I am at peace just waiting! I've got a good feeling!

Follow up with Dr. Holmes

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

I love this verse and it reminds me daily to always love Him and I know he will never leave us through good and bad. It gives me such peace to know that he has always gone before us in everything that we face in this life. The past couple of weeks have been tough thinking about that beast, cancer, that came back yet again. I have prayed over and over thanking God for all He has done so far and for what He will still do. I have prayed that this last evidence of cancer be the last one. I have given it over to Him because He is the ultimate healer and anything is possible with God. Praise HIM!

Today we went to Birmingham for Dad's follow up appointment with Dr. Holmes. Right off they took his staples out before we even saw Dr. Holmes. The incision is healing great. Here's how the opening conversation went with Dad and Dr. Holmes..(I thought it was pretty funny)

Dr. Holmes: Hey there, so how was that? Did you survive?
Dad: Well...it wasn't as bad as the first time. This is #4 so I am kind of getting used to it! (lol)
Dr. Holmes: It does seem like you are on the frequent flyer plan.
Dad: Yea, but I don't want any more points!

(examining his mouth and incision..)
Dr. Holmes: Did I hear that you called here the DAY AFTER your surgery to see if you could drive?
Dad: No, I called THAT AFTERNOON!

We were all laughing at the conversation! You gotta love that attitude! For the most part, everything from the surgery looked great and things are healing as they should. Dad has had 4 physical therapy sessions and Dr. Holmes was so impressed with the range of motion he already has at this point. That is par for the course with Dad..always breaking the rules about when he should be healed and up and going!

The pathology report revealed that there was in fact, evidence of aggressive squamous cell carcinoma in dissected sample. Dr. Holmes explained to us that several lymph nodes were tested from in and around the area and they all showed no evidence of disease. This is great news. This cancer traveled through the tissues and/or blood vessels and camped out in this particular spot. Again it is believed this is a result of the original tumor. The problem being that there is no way to tell if another cell is floating out there until it decides to "act bad". We pray that they behave!!

The question now is whether or not he can have radiation in this particular area. There are a lot of factors that play in to that determination. We have an appointment with Dr. Hardacre on Tuesday, Feb. 16 to go over all of that.

Until then it is my hope that you all pray that this cancer is gone from his body. Pray for the doctors as they look at the factors and decide whether or not he can safely have more radiation. We are so thankful for all of your care and concern. It is wonderful to have such support! Mom and Dad are off to the beach for a long weekend to celebrate their anniversary! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Physical Therapy

Just wanted to check in and let you all know that Dad has had a fairly good week recovering. I drove him around to several appointments on Friday and he even made it out to a "night out" with friends on Friday night. He spent the weekend resting and healing. His shoulder is REALLY sore and he will start physical therapy on it tomorrow morning. I will be in touch again soon, but in the mean time please pray for the final pathology report and our next visit on Feb. 4th with Dr. Holmes.

Back Home!

Dad is back home and resting as of about 2:00 today. He slept well last night and looked 100% better when I saw him this morning as compared to last night. Dr. Holmes came in this morning and took about 15 minutes with him to explain all that he found and what we would do from here. Again, anytime a cancer comes back it is not the news we wanted to hear, but that being said, it is what it is and we are prepared to fight it away again. This particular tumor was very aggressive. Our goal is to keep the cancers in the head and neck and hopefully kill whatever is left with another round of radiation. The doctors will decide that course of action in the next couple of weeks based on the final pathology report. We are praying that he is able to get more radiation in that area. Cancer is so unpredictable and you never can tell from one person to the next how it is going to act. We are praying that this was all we will see. He is supposed to rest until at least Friday (Ha! I've had already had to drive him by the office on the way back in to town!) He will go back to the doctor (hopefully his local GP) to take out the drain left from the surgery on Friday, then we have an appointment in two weeks with Dr. Holmes to remove the staples and check on the healing. HOPEFULLY he will know at that point what our next step is.

Words cannot express how much we have felt your prayers. I personally am amazed at the blanket of peace and calmness that we have during all this. God is definitely with us every moment! Keep praying. Pray for this cancer to be gone! Love, Michelle

Keep Praying!

We have all just gotten back from Birmingham. Mom is staying in the room with Dad and Stephen and I will head back down first thing in the morning to hopefully bring him home. It has been a long day! However, I am comforted by Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Thanks Lisa!)

Now, let me see if I can give a little more information than I did in the earlier post. First of all, the good news is that the PET scan showed no further sign of disease. The bad news is that this tumor in his neck was much larger than expected and seemed to be very aggressive. The doctors were disappointed when they saw this knowing that Dad has had both chemo and radiation specifically in this area. Cancer is so random and there are no predictions as to why this came back and will it come back again? This being said, they (both doctors) agreed that from a surgical standpoint the surgery was a success. They got it all out. Dr. Holmes firmly believes that this is all stemming from that original tumor. So, our plan is to determine whether or not he can receive more radiation (let's pray that he can!) and if he can they will order that to start very specifically in this area of the neck AFTER he heals from today's surgery. (about 5 weeks) Dr. Holmes wants this but ultimately it is the radiologist's call. So that is where we are...yes, we found another big tumor..UGH! However, it IS OUT OF THERE and we are going to pray for radiation to kill whatever else if left in there and I KNOW GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED in it all!

Just talked to mom and she said he is still groggy and keeps trying to wake up but is facing a lot of pain in his arm and a bad headache! Dr. Holmes said his arm would be VERY sore this time and put him out for a while. I would be willing to bet that it won't keep him down long!

We need and appreciate all of you prayers. Love to you all!
Michelle

surgery update

Dad is out of surgery and in a room for the night. It has been a long day because the surgery schedule was all backed up and he never got back until nearly noon. The surgery took about two hours. He is still asleep and on meds for the night. We had some disappointing news as the tumor was a lot larger than we expected. It was very aggressive and starting to attack the nerves and blood vessels in his neck. From a surgical standpoint it was successful. They removed all of it that they could see touch and feel. Dr. Holmes has talked to us briefly and will return with more information for us later this afternoon. Please pray for Dad and the rest of the family. I will post more in a bit once we get him settled in. Just wanted to let you all know he was out and he did fine during the surgery.

January Update

For those of you who still check the blog, I know it has been since November since I updated. We had a great Thanksgiving and wonderful Christmas! A week or so before Thanksgiving Dad started having some pain in his neck right around the scar tissue from the original surgery. We decided to watch it and hope that it was scar tissue and/or muscle pain as the scar is right along the neck where he turns his head. After the holidays it was still there and seemed swollen and caused a lot of pain so he decided to call Dr. Holmes. We had an appointment on January 4 already scheduled so he said we could just wait until then and he would look at it. Upon first looking at it, he thought there was a great deal of scar tissue located on the nerve that leads down his neck and shoulder and that could be causing the pain. He also felt a small mass underneath and wanted to do a biopsy. While doing the biopsy he discovered there was a lot of infection in the area which could also have contributed to the swollen area and the pain. He prescribed him a muscle relaxer and an antibiotic while we waited for the biopsy results. One week later the biopsy came back and it wasn't the news we wanted to hear. It appears the cancer was trying to come back again. Thank God for the signs that something isn't right and we get to the doctor to check it out. It was not the news that we wanted to hear, but at least we now know and we can do something about it. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19th at St. Vincents. The surgery will be at 11:00 and Dad will stay overnight for observation and pain management. Dad had a PET scan last week so Dr. Holmes would know exactly what he is going in to get. As of tonight (Monday) we have not received a report about the PET scan but hope that it was the small mass that we suspected and nothing else. Hopefully, Dr. Holmes will go over that with us in the morning. Please pray for good news there. Pray that the mass is small and easily removed. Pray for Dr. Holmes and the other doctors and nurses involved in tomorrow's surgery. Pray that the surgery go as planned and for complete healing. We pray that when Dr. Holmes comes out after surgery that he reports that the cancer was self contained and completely removed. We will also pray that Dad feels good really quickly after the procedure. I will post as soon after the surgery as possible. Thank you all!