Something Else to Celebrate!

Deb and I just got back from a visit to my E/N/T doc -- the first I've seen him in a month or so. Of all the docs I've met on this journey, he's my favorite.

Anyway, after some gentle commiseration about my blood clot issues, he did a rather thorough job of feeling my left cheek and upper neck -- where all of this started months ago. After he was done he told us:

"Your parotid feels just fine. [i.e., there's no new sign of tumor growth at the primary site] One of our big concerns some time ago concerning additional surgery was that this cancer might have been such a fast-growing variety that it might get ahead of us [this is my term -- I forget his exact words...]. And clearly that's not happening. Now, that may be that the radiation and chemo are suppressing it or it may be that there's nothing there to suppress. But as of this moment, everything feels fine. When we're done with your treatments, we'll re-image you and go from there."

So we're not saying that I'm clean. Not yet. And not by a long shot. But the best that can be hoped for is what's happening right now.

I've also had some serious pain associated with sores in my mouth which, I understand, were caused by scattered radiation bouncing off a filling in one of my molars. And the doc prescribed two medications that should bring down the swelling and pain significantly.

Skyrockets, anyone?