You'll make it, Gary. I was diag with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue and throat in Aug. '07 and initially given 7 months.. Thanks to good doctors (and good drugs), I'm still kickin'. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and I'll do my best to answer them for you. If they prescribe radiation, it's uncomfortable, but beneficial. I don't know what chemo you'll get but it ain't all that bad. Compazine works best for me for nausea. Have your oncologist/ENT check for bone damage from the radiation, and look into hyperbaric treatment for regrowth of bone and blood vessels. Check into Ensure nutrition drinks, and if they put you on a pump, mix it about 50/50 with water. There ARE benefits to this too, Gary. I lost 140 pounds, so my knees are thanking me. Hang in there, dude. You'll be swinging a golf club again in no time!! Thoughts and prayers.
Kathy and I will add Gary and his family to our prayer list at home at at church. Gary is a strong willed individual. If anyone can beat this he certainly can. My thoughts are with you, shipmate.
Here is the latest from Gary's wife and includes a link to a website that you can visit to track Gary's progress.
Rick
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Friends and Family,
Some of you are aware, but many are not, that since January Gary has been facing some health issues. We wanted to understand more about what he was facing before sharing with a broad audience. Well, as of today, we have a plan of action and are about to embark on a somewhat daunting journey.
Gary has been diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the tonsils with some lymph node involvement. The recommended course of action (beyond the tonsillectomy he had 10 days ago) is six weeks of radiation treatment with three chemo treatments, one at the beginning, one at the middle, and one at the end. We are looking to start the radiation toward the middle/end of April.
To be able to keep those interested up-to-date on Gary’s progress, we have created a CarePage for him, http://www.carepages.com/carepages/GClarke . This site includes information on how Gary was diagnosed and where we are at in the process of treatment. We will do our best to keep this site up-to-date as this journey progresses.
Right now we are focused on the various doctor appointments necessary to line everything up to ensure the best chance of success in providing Gary a COMPLETE cure of this cancer (yes, it is curable!!!).
