Wow, what a roller coaster. I suppose it's easy to gauge my mood yesterday, at deaths door, no hope, and self defeated. Well someone threw me a lifeline today and I have grabbed on for all I got. Today was the meeting with the oncologist. Did not want to get out of bed. The results of the pet scan I was convinced were the most horrible possible. DW and I stopped for coffee just to kill time, as always we left with too much time. I just could not sit still. Arrived and signed in with the receptionist. She asked if there were any pet scan results. I had asked the receptionist at the Pet scan office twice to send results for todays consultation and had given her the doctors info. No results. I give this receptionist the PET scan info and she calls for results. I ask that she give me a copy when they arrive. I'm now waiting to see the oncologist when the receptionist walks up and hands me a copy of the pet scan. The oncologist dosen't have them yet. I start reading. DW is commenting that she can't understand it. I'm looking for one thing, Is it indicating cancer of the lungs. No vital organs are affected. I comment that I think its good. The oncologist walks out, introduces himself and I immediately like him. He asks some routine questions and begins to go over the PET scan one line at a time. He explains everything and keeps telling us to ask for clarification of anything not understood. The pet scan is lighting up around the node that was removed as well as two others. He reiterates that because the surgery has the distubed the area so much the others may or may not have cancer. An area at the base of my tongue is lighting up as the suspected possible primary site of the cancer. The ENT doctor could not see anything here upon his exam. He wants to biopsy the base of the tongue to confirm primary. Next I have too get a feeding tube installed in the abdomen and a port for Blood and IV in the collar area. Oncologist says I'm young, strong, and have no other medical issues. He says he can not guarauntee a cure but that it is probable and the long term prognosis is good. Chemo and radiation will be 8 weeks, 5 days on and two off. This might actually be a better prognosis than some lymphomas. This will be difficult to understand but I'm actually relieved to have this cancer. The very heavy elephant has gotten off my chest. There are some bad days ahead but I believe there will be many more good days after that. One thing that I want to point out is that alcohol and smoking worked in conjuction to cause this cancer. I've learned that the alcohol weakened the mucus membranes by constant irritation which helped the carcinogens from smoking to get a foothold. You only hear about the dangers of smoking contributing to cancer, I'm hear to tell you that alcohol is a big deal here. If you know someone that falls into this category as I did please pass that along.
