My dad was diagnosed with squamous cell carcenoma June 2006. For over a year his primary care physician was treating the lumps in his neck with steroid and antibiotics. Almost 2 years prior to this he had some squamous cells surgically removed from his ear. Originally it was thought that it had spread internally to his neck and under his arm. July 2006 he had lymph nodes removed from under his arm, but all of it couldn't be removed because of it's depth. The day after that surgery he had a modified massive neck dissection, lymph nodes were removed and as much of the tumor was removed that could be, it was also extremely invasive. The doctor took us in the quiet room after the surgery and said that he had a 20% chance of getting rid of the remaining tumors. He began treatment at the end of August. The first protocol was 6 weeks of radiation, 5 days a week with chemo every 2 weeks one day a week. Then he had chemo over 12 weeks, every 3rd Thursday. The last treatment was the end of December 2006. He had a petscan in January and the two spot were clear, but now there is a spot on his lung and 2 spots on his spine (C spine, Tspine). He just finished 4 weeks of radiation for the spot on the top of his spine, the lower spot there are a lot of risks with treatment do to the location.
During this whole time, they had been saying that they didn't know what the primary was. Now they are saying it is lung cancer. The radiation that he just finished burned his throat were he can't eat and he is taking morphine just so he can eat a little bit. This has been a very difficult time for him. Almost every side effect of the chemo has happened to him.
I am married, have a 2 1/2 year old daughter and a 4 year old son and work full time in public accounting and it is tax season right now. I am extremely close to my father as he is the parent who raised me, my mother gave up custody. I have 2 siblings and a wonderful step-mother. My step-mother is taking care of my father and I am helping when I can. My sister lives out of state and my brother...
With the news that it is lung cancer and it was growing during his first round of treatments, what does this mean. Now they are going to give him a few weeks to heal before a round of chemo starts. The onocologist is only doing 3 weeks of chemo and then a catscan to see if he responds to the treatment. They are also talking about surgery on the tumor on the lower spine. Basically, am I losing my father? My friends tell me to start preparing, but my dad is ready to stop fighting and the thought of losing him, I just can't deal with that....
Deanna