Michael's Journey to health
Donation protected
For those that don't know us or are not close friends, this is Michael Bobik, my husband. After suffering with what seemed to be allergies then became more concerning when his tongue became numb, he lost taste to his food and he was feeling pressure on his throat. Our primary care doc sent us to an ENT to take a closer look.
Following a CT scan and a diagnosis of possible salivary gland inflammation we thought, "Great, something we can handle". After this ENT's diagnosis and follow up from another round of steroids he still felt the same. During this visit this ENT confused Michael for another patient and seemed upset that Michael didn't take medicine that was prescribed for the other patient. After figuring out his mistake the ENT apologized for his confusing patients. Needless to say this did not instill confidence with Michael that this ENT was very competent and he had lost faith in his advice. After discussing his unimproved condition this ENT felt that he needed Physical Therapy from what he felt was residual pain from a previous neck injury.
Curious to us since he has never had problems with his neck nor was it ever discussed in his past medical history to this ENT. It was at that time that we decided he needed a second opinion but would give the 1st ENT the benefit of doubt and went to see the Physical Therapist. We are so very thankful that we followed our gut and made that appointment for the second opinion.
The second ENT did what we thought was the right choice, if you are still having pain, get a follow up CT. Kudo’s to this ENT for having the common sense to not jump to any conclusions but wanted not only for him to get a follow up CT but to get the CT done by the same Radiologist.
When the results came back the second ENT was very concerned. There had been NO change in the 1st CT. His concern for what could be causing Michael's issue was something he felt required as he put it "the specialist of the specialist for ENT". He indicated that there were only 3 that he knew of and 1 of the 3 specialist in this area to be the best in the field. This was the first time the possibility that the idea of Cancer was ever suggested.
We had our first appointment with the "specialist of specialist's" on Christmas Eve and I believe that this Doctor knew what Mike had even before he did his exam by what Mike was describing to him. A needle biopsy was completed on that day. On the 29th of December, it was confirmed Michael had cancer. When the doctor was discussing what was found on the slides, with my medical background I knew what the next words were going to be. It was all I could do to contain the tears while we were still in the office.
As we left the doctor's office to have some tests run I could no longer hold back the tears. This man that so unselfishly married me after a broken marriage, treated my two children as his own was now in for the fight of his life. His happy go lucky spirit not broken and seeing my concern and heartache for what was to come of him was now was consoling me!
Endoscopy was scheduled for January 6th to get a look at the location, size and involvement.
On the 6th Mike went into the outpatient surgery for the biopsy from the primary tumor, behind the tonsil and at the base of his tongue. It only took 15 minutes for the Doctor to come to me and tell me it was already at stage 4, malignant, metastasized and not operable without affecting his quality of life because of the location of the tumor. The good news was that the survival rate for this type of Cancer was 60 to 80% with Radiation and Chemo Therapy.
Gosh, how 5 words can suck the wind right out of you. Cancer, stage 4, malignant and metastasized. To top it off the doctor had strongly said that there was a strong likelihood that a feeding tube would be necessary to maintain his weight.
Treatment for this cancer started February 4th.
Fast forward to 3/9/2015, Mike has been a trouper! He has an awesome job that allows him to work from home. We set that up right away. He works while receiving his Chemo as you can see in the picture. He has toughed it out with Tylenol for pain, don't get me wrong, we have the hard stuff available if needed, but so far have only used the Tylenol.
He remains active by walking every morning. We purchased some minor home work out items for him to try to keep up the muscle mass and has been eating as much as he can to keep as many calories he can to maintain his weight. Swallowing is a challenge but the worst thing is he has no taste.
Our biggest challenge has been sorting through all the mounting medical bills. We have good insurance but we have a $6500 out of pocket deductible that has to be met. Also there is a trickle down affect. So many tanks of gas, so many costs for over the counter meds, salves, dressings, the list is extensive and our bank account is barely keeping up.
We are by no means destitute, but how many of us have that kind of cash just laying around? We are accumulating credit card debt and seem to only keeping up with partial payments now when we used to keep them to a minimum and pay them off.
We are humble people. When the economy was thriving we were very generous people. We still are. Now we now find ourselves in the same situations that we donated to other deserving people! We have never asked for help and this is a hard pill for us to swallow.
Anything you donate will help us. It doesn't have to be much. What we all lack in economic wealth, we are mighty in numbers and every bit helps meet our deductible and the strain to keep our heads above water.
Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help.
Following a CT scan and a diagnosis of possible salivary gland inflammation we thought, "Great, something we can handle". After this ENT's diagnosis and follow up from another round of steroids he still felt the same. During this visit this ENT confused Michael for another patient and seemed upset that Michael didn't take medicine that was prescribed for the other patient. After figuring out his mistake the ENT apologized for his confusing patients. Needless to say this did not instill confidence with Michael that this ENT was very competent and he had lost faith in his advice. After discussing his unimproved condition this ENT felt that he needed Physical Therapy from what he felt was residual pain from a previous neck injury.
Curious to us since he has never had problems with his neck nor was it ever discussed in his past medical history to this ENT. It was at that time that we decided he needed a second opinion but would give the 1st ENT the benefit of doubt and went to see the Physical Therapist. We are so very thankful that we followed our gut and made that appointment for the second opinion.
The second ENT did what we thought was the right choice, if you are still having pain, get a follow up CT. Kudo’s to this ENT for having the common sense to not jump to any conclusions but wanted not only for him to get a follow up CT but to get the CT done by the same Radiologist.
When the results came back the second ENT was very concerned. There had been NO change in the 1st CT. His concern for what could be causing Michael's issue was something he felt required as he put it "the specialist of the specialist for ENT". He indicated that there were only 3 that he knew of and 1 of the 3 specialist in this area to be the best in the field. This was the first time the possibility that the idea of Cancer was ever suggested.
We had our first appointment with the "specialist of specialist's" on Christmas Eve and I believe that this Doctor knew what Mike had even before he did his exam by what Mike was describing to him. A needle biopsy was completed on that day. On the 29th of December, it was confirmed Michael had cancer. When the doctor was discussing what was found on the slides, with my medical background I knew what the next words were going to be. It was all I could do to contain the tears while we were still in the office.
As we left the doctor's office to have some tests run I could no longer hold back the tears. This man that so unselfishly married me after a broken marriage, treated my two children as his own was now in for the fight of his life. His happy go lucky spirit not broken and seeing my concern and heartache for what was to come of him was now was consoling me!
Endoscopy was scheduled for January 6th to get a look at the location, size and involvement.
On the 6th Mike went into the outpatient surgery for the biopsy from the primary tumor, behind the tonsil and at the base of his tongue. It only took 15 minutes for the Doctor to come to me and tell me it was already at stage 4, malignant, metastasized and not operable without affecting his quality of life because of the location of the tumor. The good news was that the survival rate for this type of Cancer was 60 to 80% with Radiation and Chemo Therapy.
Gosh, how 5 words can suck the wind right out of you. Cancer, stage 4, malignant and metastasized. To top it off the doctor had strongly said that there was a strong likelihood that a feeding tube would be necessary to maintain his weight.
Treatment for this cancer started February 4th.
Fast forward to 3/9/2015, Mike has been a trouper! He has an awesome job that allows him to work from home. We set that up right away. He works while receiving his Chemo as you can see in the picture. He has toughed it out with Tylenol for pain, don't get me wrong, we have the hard stuff available if needed, but so far have only used the Tylenol.
He remains active by walking every morning. We purchased some minor home work out items for him to try to keep up the muscle mass and has been eating as much as he can to keep as many calories he can to maintain his weight. Swallowing is a challenge but the worst thing is he has no taste.
Our biggest challenge has been sorting through all the mounting medical bills. We have good insurance but we have a $6500 out of pocket deductible that has to be met. Also there is a trickle down affect. So many tanks of gas, so many costs for over the counter meds, salves, dressings, the list is extensive and our bank account is barely keeping up.
We are by no means destitute, but how many of us have that kind of cash just laying around? We are accumulating credit card debt and seem to only keeping up with partial payments now when we used to keep them to a minimum and pay them off.
We are humble people. When the economy was thriving we were very generous people. We still are. Now we now find ourselves in the same situations that we donated to other deserving people! We have never asked for help and this is a hard pill for us to swallow.
Anything you donate will help us. It doesn't have to be much. What we all lack in economic wealth, we are mighty in numbers and every bit helps meet our deductible and the strain to keep our heads above water.
Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help.
Organizer
C. Aletta Bobik
Organizer
Anthem, AZ