Son's long journey to beat cancer

My son Justin, 30, is an amazing husband, father, son, and brother. Just a great person in general. No one has a kinder heart and a positive outlook on life than he does. He has been burdened with extreme pain in his jaw, tongue, and throat for the past 2 1/2 months. On Wednesday, Aug. 9th, he was told he has tongue cancer. Before this diagnosis, in May, he went to an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) doctor who said it was TMJ which is a joint condition of the jaw and almost always caused by an event like a dental procedure or an injury. Justin had none of that, but we took the doctor’s word. He sent him to PT to exercise his jaw. Justin then went to his dentist as nothing was improving and the pain was increasing. The dentist said, not TMJ, but inflammation. He put him on steroids. No improvement and still in severe pain. Consistently expressing his pain to his doctors. Justin was telling the doctors he was losing weight as well because the pain was so intense that he couldn’t eat. I took him to the hospital on August 4th because of the pain and they did a cat scan to reveal a mass lesion.

He went to a different ENT on Monday, where he was finally listened to and was sent to the University of Maryland for an appt for suspected tongue cancer which was confirmed to have Squamous cell carcinoma. Justin has a long road ahead of him. He will have surgery on Aug 21st to remove 3/4 of his tongue and will take skin from his thigh to make a prosthetic tongue. He will have some lymph nodes removed for cautionary reasons. The recovery for this is approximately 5 -7 months. 6 weeks after the surgery, he will have radiation treatments. He and his wife Gosia will be spending a lot of time off work and at the hospital all while raising their 5-year-old daughter. This cancer is rare, invasive and aggressive and they are moving swiftly to heal him. He has never smoked or chewed tobacco and doesn't even drink so the cause is unknown. But they could use help financially for medical bills, food and transportation while traveling to the hospital so they can focus on the healing process without all that other stuff on their mind. We want to lessen the burden, so any help is appreciated. Thank you for your consideration and generosity.

Sue

Justin's mom