Well, the first thing that I have to say in this blog is that I'm sorry. I have been keeping this a secret since we found out, so I have not been fine, having nice days, good weeks or anything like it. It's more like I'm depressed, aggravated, angry, depressed, wanting to kick all those doctors butts, and like my heart has been ripped out and danced on. I knew that Dad was sick before Thanksgiving but I never told anyone until now. He is one day out from surgey and now I tell you guys, well as they say denial is not a river in Egypt. I also did not want to put anymore on your plates than you already had to handle.
Dad had his first bout last year and had radiation treatments. He was very sensitive to the radiation and got burns several times. His mouth and his neck. Sometimes these would put off his treatments for a week or once for three weeks and they had to start giving him a lower dosage. When he had gone through the full course of treatments, the doctors did in depth testing and said that they got it all. Now that you are up to speed on the first bout I will begin on the second.
This all started from side effect from the radiation. Dad had no saliva left in his mouth and this started to give him some problems. For one he always had to have something to wash his food down, etc.. Well, one of the side effects from the radiation was having tooth problems. My Dad's gums receded and he needed to have some teeth pulled. Our regular dentist would not pull them so he recommended an oral surgeon. This guy would not do it until Dad got some oxygen treatments to head off another side effect of the gradation, which was called sloppy jaw. All it means is that Dad would have healed slower than normal or not at all. He went to take the oxygen treatments and got through all of them and then the crap hit the fan.
The first thing that my Dad started to complain about is that he was having a lot of trouble swallowing his pills. We took him to the doctor and he had a scope in the office and the doctor said that it looked like what he saw in allergy patients that time of year so the doctor gave Dad some ( what do you call that stuff that makes you eat a lot), and something to numb his throat because he was having trouble there to and sent him home. He took the medicine but it did not make him feel any better.At this time the swelling in his throat began.
Dad had starting swelling in the throat and he could not eat anything because it all choked him. He couldn't even drink anything it was so bad. We took him back to the doctor, but this time they could see nothing. They couldn't even get a scope down his throat. He was sent to the hospital for a CT scan, but they couldn't see anything on that either. They made him an appointment to get a PET scan. That is a scan that can tell if you have cancer and many other illnesses. His doctors had a consultation about this and recommended that he go to a surgeon that specialized in many different kinds of cancer surgery.
Dad went to his appointment with this doctor and he examined the PET results and told Dad that he had Become sick with cancer again. He made Dad an appointment at the hospital to do a biopsy to make sure and he was right. As for the swelling in Dad's throat that was caused by the radiation burning up something in his throat . There is a scientific word for it but it's to long to spell.
Tomorrow Dad will be having surgery if there are no problems that come up in the mean time. They will be taking his vocal chords, voice box and the swollen tissue out of his throat. He will not be able to talk and will need a lot of help when he gets home.
As I write this I am feeling guilty that I will not be able to go. I am somewhat phobic of hospitals after I was in one for almost two months with a messed up gall bladder. The surgon didn't know his ass from a whole in the ground so he messed up. There will be a lot of people there with my mother and I feel guilty for not being one of them. I have no problems with going to visit people in the hospital, It's just having to sit there that freaks me out and I know this makes no sense what-so-ever but this makes me so mad that I want to blow my top.
