Troy Bodart’s Cancer Journey

Hello, my name is Jennifer DesArmo and I am Troy’s sister-in-law.

In June, Troy started having pain in his jaw. Assuming it was tooth related he went to the dentist. It was at the dentist they discovered a mass and was referred to ENT. This “mass” ended up being a stone in his saliva gland which was not the cause of his pain.

During visits with the ENT; a lesion on Troys tonsil was discovered. On October 14th, surgery was attempted to remove the lesion. However once in surgery, the surgeon discovered the lesion was larger than expected and wrapped around his tonsil. A biopsy was completed and cancer was diagnosed. Troy was then referred to St Luke’s in Milwaukee to an ENT Oncologist.

On November 9th, Troy was admitted to St Luke’s Hospital for removal of the tumor. The surgery was expected to last 3 hours, however once the surgeon was able to begin it was clear the cancer had spread significantly. The surgery lasted over 5 hours. Troys surgeon had to perform a radical tonsillectomy, remove part of the tongue base, removed 3 teeth, shaved down part of his jaw bone, and a neck dissection with the removal of 17 lymph nodes. An overnight stay became 5 days after the unexpected complicated surgery.

The biopsy revealed stage 3 (throat/mouth cancer) squamous cell carcinoma. He began radiation treatment in December. He has to complete 30 rounds of radiation; receiving treatment Monday through Friday for 7 weeks. Once radiation is completed; he will have a PET scan to determine if radiation accomplished the goal of getting rid of this terrible disease.

Newest information:

Radiation has taken its nasty toll on Troy, in all transparency this week was a rough and scary one. Due to the effects, Troy had to stop working again immediately and will likely be off for the next several months at least. We are so thankful for the month of work he was able to do!

With that being said, our family and friends have started to plan a benefit for him on April 1st in Seymour, WI

This page will be set up for friends to be able to support from far away or who can’t attend the benefit and still want to help.

Please continue to send thoughts and prayers… he has completed 11 out of 30 treatments! (1/6/23) Almost half way there!!!