William’s (Jody’s) Continued Care

On Feb 1st 2024, William (Jody) was diagnosed with stage 4 Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the tonsils. It was determined by an oncology surgeon that surgery was not an option as he would lose the whole bottom of his jaw because of how much the cancer had invaded the area. So chemotherapy and radiation was his only option. Both were successful in killing the cancer, but treatment damaged and ulcerated the inside of his mouth. June 23rd, he had a bleed that caused him to go into cardiac arrest. He was successfully revived. They embolized an artery and for 8 months, he had no bleed so we thought that nightmare was over. On March 5th, he had a bad bleed, was taken to Beaumont Baptist hospital who then had him taken to Memorial Hermann TMC. They embolized 3 arteries, including his external carotid artery. Turned out he still continued to bleed. He spent 3 weeks under sedation. We were told that he had no other options and the best thing we could do for him was to let him pass. (The rest of him was relatively healthy, what would take him out would be a bleed) That was a hard pill to swallow… thinking I had no other options, I placed a DNR on him and they put him into Palliative care. This God sent doctor came in to his room one evening and told his docs “let’s see what the patient wants”… We didn’t even know that was an option, for all we knew, he was being kept alive by machines, they never told us that if we stopped the sedation, he would wake up. So they woke him and asked him what he wanted, ….

He wants to fight!

And so we fight for him.

He’s had a few more bleeds since then and have embolized a few more arteries. But this time we took him to St. Luke’s. I am so glad we did. When we told the doctors that William was ready to fight, they went to work on it, so far, things have been good but a bleed is inevitable. So his ENT, Cardiologist, Oncologist amongst other doctors came together to come up with a plan to save his life. A Laryngectomy. That will do away with everything in his mouth bleeding. A skin graft would reconstruct everything in his mouth. His bleeds will stop. But before they could perform that, they had to replace a heart valve. It was replaced a week ago and he’s starting to feel the difference, less breathless, less tired. In 3 weeks, June 13th, he will get the laryngectomy . He will lose his voice box ( he has already lost the ability to talk) He is in good spirits though, he knows this is his only chance to live the rest of his natural life without fear of bleeding to death. He can once again have life.

This has been a hard journey. Life continues and bills pile up. We finally have medical insurance which is why this surgery is possible, but everyday expenses are adding up. He was the breadwinner in our family and without him, we’ve fallen behind. He is looking forward to being able to go back to work, but he needs to recover after this surgery. If you could share this post to people that can help us, churches, relief groups, friends and social media, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations will help our family get back on our feet.