First appointment with the Surgeon

I stressed myself out so much the morning that we went to meet with my new ENT Surgeon for the first time. I was worked up about having to talk about all the surgery options. I knew what the options were, and none of them were good. Horribly life-changing type of stuff. By talking to this doctor, I was being forced to face the reality of life-changing decisions that needed to made, and fast.

We were so blessed to have been able to find this doctor (through family and friends in the medical field.) He does 95% of the Head and Neck cancer surgeries in our area. He is the one that all of my other doctors ask about what his opinion is on other things. He is definitely the most knowledgeable and most experienced doctor. When we first called to get an appointment with him (before we even had the biopsy results,) he was on vacation in Hawaii with his family. But his staff contacted him and reviewed my case while still on vacation and got me in the day he returned to the office.

During our visit with the Surgeon, he was very optimistic, reassuring, and comforting. The problem with my tumor is that it not just on my vocal cords, but also has a subglottic extension (basically it extends down below the cords too.) These tumors have been seen to more aggressive and more resistant to treatment than tumors that are only on the vocal cords. These tumors have two surgery options, partial laryngectomy (where they remove half of your larynx vertically) and full laryngectomy (where they remove your entire larynx, including your voice box, and give you a tract to breathe through the front of your neck.) Because of the location of my tumor, a partial laryngectomy is not an option. So if surgery is required, the only option is full laryngectomy.

But I was able to leave the office with a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. The doctor feels very confident that the tumor will respond well to radiation and chemo treatments alone. But we will still have surgery as a back up option if need be.

This was such a great thing to hear, because getting a laryngectomy is a huge deal. I would have no voice. I would be BREATHING THROUGH MY NECK! Since there's a hole leading straight into my lungs, you're more prone to sickness, you cant swim, you have to be careful bathing, and the list could go on and on.

So Im excited to get started on radiation and chemo treatments to get this over with! After speaking to the Radiation doc and the Chemo doc, it looks like all three doctors agree to my treatment plan: 7 weeks of 35 treatments of radiation and 7 weekly chemos. They said by about the third week, Id be feeling pretty bad. Most of the side effects will have set in by then. The pain medications will cause fatigue, and the more and more that meds that I need, the more tired I'll be. Eventually, I'll be in so much pain and have so much fatigue that I will be in a cycle of waking up, brushing flossing and mouth-washing (crazy strict oral routine!), force feeding my self, and then back to bed, because everything will be so exhausting (especially the force feeding part, since it will be like eating sand and will be excruciatingly painful to swallow.) And this will be repeated about four times a day.