From bad to worse.....

Well, after months of complaining to various Dr's about my ever swelling tongue and increasing difficulty in swallowing and speaking, and after all these so called learned Dr's waived it all off as to the side effects of radiation, I persisted and did not let up and continued to push for scans and tests and the end result is my cancer has been on the move and was probably never fully eradicated from my first chemo/radiation treatments of a year and a half ago.
After several sessions with Dr. Michael Hinni of the Mayo Clinic, I was finally able to convince him to biopsy some of the "hot spots" that had shown up on recent scans that he had ordered, and the one spot that they were able to biopsy came back as cancerous. It was a lymph node on the right side of upper neck near the back of the right jawbone. After these results, Dr. Hinni recommended surgery to remove all the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck in the hopes of removing any and all cancerous tissues that he could. But first he wanted to biopsy the original sight of the first tumor on the left base of my tongue, as if this came back as cancerous then he might have a do a more major surgery to remove more tissue of the tongue and other areas of the throat.
The pre-surgery test went well with the exception of two lesions on my right lung of which they were unable to determine what they were, as in cancerous or not. Chest X-rays were followed up with a CT-Scan, which revealed nothing that alarmed the radiologist who read the report immediately following the scan, but Dr. Hinni wanted to be 100% sure so he ordered a lung biopsy to be performed on the same day of the neck biopsy to see what the results showed. If the results came back as cancerous, then Dr. Hinni would not go forward with the neck biopsy as his reasoning was that if the lung was diseased, then cutting into the neck and throat would not be of any good since the disease had spread to the lung. Fortunately, this was not the case as the lung biopsy came back as negative and we proceeded with the neck biopsy.
Dr. Hinni told me that if cancer was found at the original tumor sight he would not proceed any further until I was awoken and spoken to about the results and a plan of action would be agreed upon by all parties involved. If not cancer were found then he would proceed with a right neck dissection to remove the lymph nodes of that side.
As I awoke in the recovery room, I was in great pain on the inside of my throat, similar to the pain one feels after having tonsils removed, but as I touched the side of my neck I felt no pain nor was there any evidence of surgery being performed there, so I kind of had a feeling that Dr. Hinni had found cancer at the original sight. Later that day, after being admitted to a private room for an overnight stay to manage the pain of the biopsy, my sister Teresa, who flew in from Denver, Co. and my Dad who also flew in from Pittsburgh to be with me through this revealed the findings of the biopsy. Dr. Hinni had found cancer, not on the surface but within the tissues of the back of the throat, both sides of the base of the tongue, the esophagus, larynx and vocal cords and along numerous nerve endings and blood vessels. Teresa and Dad both said that Dr. Hinni would be in the following day to discuss the results with me.
After a painful and restless night in the hospital, although the nurses care was exceptional, Dr. Hinni arrived at 8:00 a.m. with two of his associates to discuss the findings and subsequent plans for follow-up action. He basically said that the cancer was so widespread that doing a radical neck dissection would not remove all the cancer, would not prolong my life and would probably cause me great discomfort and I would lose my ability to eat and speak altogether. He was very hesitant about removing my tongue and voice box saying that it would be about a 12 hour operation and that it would not prolong my life at all. In short, he said all that could be done at this point is to keep me as comfortable as possible and possible slow the progression of the disease with chemotherapy.
So, I left the hospital around 10:30 a.m. that same day and will meet again with Dr. Hinni tomorrow along with a team from the Radiation and Oncology departments of the Mayo Clinic to see what they have to say. I will also meet with a representative of a Social Services agency and see what he has to offer.
I am now contemplating my future and how I want to live it out. While Dr. Hinni said he could not give me a timeline, he did say that disability was probably in my future so I now have to decide if I should keep on working or return home and live out my remaining days doing as Dr. Hinni put it to Teresa and Dad, "doing what Tom wants to do". So this is where things stand as of for now, many decisions will be made in the next few days/weeks and I will continue to post updates as warranted on either my decisions and or condition. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support and I will continue the fight to the best of my ability!