Throat Cancer, Round 2
Donation protected
I am 43 years old with a lovely wife and two beautiful children. Our house is filled with love, laughter and many, many animals.
Six years ago our world turned upside down when I was diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer of my vocal chord. After many doctors visits, it was determined that the best course of action was to cut out my paralyzed, right vocal chord. They held off on radiation due to my age and the possibility of recurrence. Several surgeries later, I was cancer free! I remained that way for 5 glorious years. However, on June 19th, I had a visit with my ENT doctor to discuss the bulge in my neck that seemed to be growing larger and more painful. A PET scan was ordered and our world wasn't ready to be rocked again.
It is cancer and it is back with a vengeance. I have a malignant tumor in my neck that's grown rapidly in the past few months. It's an extremely aggressive form that has begun spreading and eating away at my voice box and other soft tissues in my throat. We were sent back to the University of Minnesota to see the ENT oncologist who dealt with my first battle. We were seen by teams of doctors that day. They held a tumor board meeting to discuss my case on Friday, July 12. Their recommendation is to have a complete laryngectomy. This will remove my voice box and larynx. They also need to do a neck dissection to remove my lymph nodes. After this surgery, I will need a stoma to breathe and a tracheoesophageal voice prothesis to speak. As soon as I’m healed, I will have to have radiation and chemo therapy for 6 weeks.
We are looking at extensive treatment and a lot of travel. Unfortunately, I have been out of work for over a year after having a botched neck surgery in 2017 when I had 4 titanium plates put in. After the pain I went I for originally never subsided after having that done, they decided to do surgery on my elbow to try to correct it. That didn't help the pain either. Doctors began to treat me terribly as if I were a junkie looking for pain pills. It was actually the cancer growing inside me, destroying tissue all over the right side of my neck. We're still paying for those 2 surgeries. This news has been a devastating hit to our family. We desperately need to catch a break! Anything you can do to help would be a precious gift to us. We want to thank everyone who shares this post and those who are taking time to read it and think of our family during our battle.
Six years ago our world turned upside down when I was diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer of my vocal chord. After many doctors visits, it was determined that the best course of action was to cut out my paralyzed, right vocal chord. They held off on radiation due to my age and the possibility of recurrence. Several surgeries later, I was cancer free! I remained that way for 5 glorious years. However, on June 19th, I had a visit with my ENT doctor to discuss the bulge in my neck that seemed to be growing larger and more painful. A PET scan was ordered and our world wasn't ready to be rocked again.
It is cancer and it is back with a vengeance. I have a malignant tumor in my neck that's grown rapidly in the past few months. It's an extremely aggressive form that has begun spreading and eating away at my voice box and other soft tissues in my throat. We were sent back to the University of Minnesota to see the ENT oncologist who dealt with my first battle. We were seen by teams of doctors that day. They held a tumor board meeting to discuss my case on Friday, July 12. Their recommendation is to have a complete laryngectomy. This will remove my voice box and larynx. They also need to do a neck dissection to remove my lymph nodes. After this surgery, I will need a stoma to breathe and a tracheoesophageal voice prothesis to speak. As soon as I’m healed, I will have to have radiation and chemo therapy for 6 weeks.
We are looking at extensive treatment and a lot of travel. Unfortunately, I have been out of work for over a year after having a botched neck surgery in 2017 when I had 4 titanium plates put in. After the pain I went I for originally never subsided after having that done, they decided to do surgery on my elbow to try to correct it. That didn't help the pain either. Doctors began to treat me terribly as if I were a junkie looking for pain pills. It was actually the cancer growing inside me, destroying tissue all over the right side of my neck. We're still paying for those 2 surgeries. This news has been a devastating hit to our family. We desperately need to catch a break! Anything you can do to help would be a precious gift to us. We want to thank everyone who shares this post and those who are taking time to read it and think of our family during our battle.
Organizer
Rob Slack
Organizer
Alexandria, MN