From The Beginning

First off...Thanks to Dana's sis "Bucky" for recommending and getting this blog site up for me. Unfortunately, life has thrown me a bit of a curve ball. Fortunately, if I remember back to my City Line Little League days, I believe it was the curve ball that was the catalyst for my league leading 18 home runs (a bit of family humor). So I already know I can BEAT the curve ball!

At the beginning of April, I noticed a lump on the right side of my neck that felt like a swollen gland. Went to the Doc to have it checked out which led to a CT scan of the neck and chest. In addition to the enlarged lymph node, they discovered a 13 mm cyst on my Thyroid. This discovery led to a biopsy on both the cyst and the lymph node.

The results came back as “the good news is” the nodule on the Thyroid is benign and nothing to worry about. However, he was concerned about what was found in the lymph node...Squamous cell carcinoma to be exact; A skin cancer. He said it is rare to have those types of cells reside in the lymph node as a “primary” site as opposed to a “secondary” site. I had and still have had NO abnormal symptoms of any kind that would indicate something is wrong (other than a lump in my throat). This is the encouraging part as I see it. If I have no other symptoms, the primary site must be in its infancy stage so all we have to do is find it and put the battle plan into action.

I had a PET scan on Friday 5/1, which was a piece of cake. This test combines radioactive material that bonds to dextrose or some kind of sugar that is injected through an IV over about 2 hours. The sugar and radioactive stuff gets attracted to “Metabolically Active” sites (cancer is very metabolically active) and the subsequent scan (very similar to a CT scan) causes these active sites to “light up”. Which hopefully would detect the primary site. At this stage of the game (as crazy as it may sound), we want to find where these Squamous cells are or where they could have originated from. Tuesday 5/5, I got the results of the PET scan which in Dr. Yen's words were is showed "nothing surprising" and as it was later explained, showed no other signs of cancer other than on the lymph node.

On Wednesday 5/6, Dr. Yen performed a type of exploratory surgery called a “Pan endoscopy”. They went down the throat with a scope to try and find the “primary site” of the cancer and came up with no visual signs (not sure if that’s good or bad but I’m banking on the former). Dr. Yen did make mention in a conversation with Dana after the surgery that a possibility exists that the the primary site (wherever it may have been) "could" have spawned the cells into the lymph nodes and then "died off" (more hope!). He also took two biopsies one of the tonsil and another of the base of the tongue and are anxiously awaiting the results. That surgery was not so bad, just a sore throat and a hoarse voice.

Thank god for Ativan, the anxiety of all this unknown is really the worst part and the drug does work wonders. So, I am hoping to get the results of the pathology report on the biopsies and get to the bottom of the whole "primary site" thing. I am assuming a team of Oncologists will be recommended early this coming week at which time Dana and I will assess the situation, perhaps take a trip to the University of Penn or Sloan in NYC for a second opinion, put a game plan together and fight like I have never fought before.

Of course it's a bit scary and I know I've got a major battle ahead of me but I'm sure with the latest advancements in medical technology, a great team of Doctors, my wife's unbelievable positive attitude, my two wonderful kids great attitude, God and my spirits in the sky, my family's endless support as well as all of my close friends who already have reached out through prayers, thoughts or just a good chat, my attitude is getting stronger and stronger and I'm convinced I will prevail!

Till then…Waiting for Battle.