|
| Date Entered at Shared Experience: 06/05/2001 |
|
THROAT |
|
In January of 2000, my then fiance Chuck began to become hoarse. His father is a throat cancer survivor so after much prodding and begging from me and his sister, he finally went to an ENT specialist to have it checked out. He had a biopsy in late February and some vocal chord stripping done. The results came back that "angry cells" were the culprit. Time went on and by early July his voice began to fade once again. We were married July 23, 2000 and two weeks later he went for another biopsy. This time the doctor didn't like what he saw during the biopsy and the pathologist report confirmed his thoughts... squamous cell carcenoma -- CANCER! The suggested course of action was radiation, which at this stage and the type of tumor (T2), would yield only a 50-60% success rate. Could we be so lucky? Hardly! 37 Radiation treatments and 8 months later, the tumor was still there. On May 15th, 2001 my husband had half of his left vocal chord removed. He unfortunately developed an infection while in the hospital and this delayed his homecoming a week. His hospital stay was 16 long days. We have 3 children (my 11 and 8 year old daughters from a previous marriage and our 16 month old son born 2 weeks before the 1st biopsy) and this was tough on all of us. Two days after his surgery, I was laid-off and our insurance was only going to be in effect until the end of May. Can you imagine the stress level? He was discharged from the hospital on May 31st, and his employer managed to get us covered by their company's medical coverage beginning June 1st. My husband currently has a trach which he will have for approx 6 to 8 weeks. He had a very tough time swallowing at first and now he's eating pureed and soft foods pretty well. We have visiting nurses to check his vital signs and watch for infections, but he does all of the trach care himself, as he did in the hospital. |
|
no chemo, mega-doses of radiation for 7 weeks (5 days per week), the last 12 days were 2 treatments per day. |
|
Radiation and partial laryngectomy |
|
Although he is tired and weak, every day he gets better and better. He's got a great spirit, a lot of determination and a wonderful sense of humor, which has helped more than anyone could possibly believe. He's a salesman (a very good one) and can't wait to get back to work. He already has plans of speaking to kids about the evils of smoking -- after he gets the trach out and his voice back. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful support network of family and friends who have been instrumental in helping us cope with everything that has been going on, as well as being available for babysitting, shopping, housework and yardwork. If people offer help -- accept it. You can't do it all yourself and they will feel good helping you through this. |
|
Chuck's specialist was very informative and helpful. He answered all of our questions without fail. Cancer.org was also a tremendous help as were booklets from the National Cancer Institute. |
|
Have a positive attitude, a sense of humor and be determined to get through this. If you are the spouse or loved one of someone going through it, stay strong even when you don't think you can make it another day. It's one of the toughest things that I have ever had to do -- watch my husband go through this hell, but we will get through this and we'll be stronger because of it. Buy dry erase (white) boards and LOTS of markers, contact your local electric company and make sure you are on a priority list in case of power outages, inform your local fire department just in case they receive a call from your number and can't get someone to speak to them. Buy cloth diapers to use as napkins under the trach tube while your spouse eats/drinks to catch anything that may leak out of the trach (and not ruin clothes). I'm sure we'll have more tips to share as time goes on, but best of luck to anyone going through this. |
Visitor Information:
Role: Relative
Name:
City:
State:
Zip:
Country:
Email:
Found sharedexperience.org By: |
Doctor Information:
Rate as Information Provider: 5
(1="very poor", 5="best")
Receptiveness: 5
(1="very poor", 5="best")
Method Used for Choosing this Doctor: |
|
