Do days matter?

My SO was diagnosed Tuesday with stage IV--primary tumor is in the larnyx (voice box) with spread to the lymph nodes. The surgeon who diagnosed him said he would need chemo and radiation. He referred him to an oncologist who can't see him until next Tuesday. The office staff was annoyed when we called back for another referral to a doc who could get him in quicker. SHe said that the surgeon was aware that he wouldn't be seeing the oncologist until next week.

Will 7 days, now 5, make a difference? 

Thanks and well wishes to all.

I can not answer that question, very hard to know.. but I can tell you that waiting a week is not too bad, for my husband we had the same issue as soon as we knew it was there we wanted it addressed right away, fact is, it has been there for at least a year. a few more days did not matter. Be prepared the process to get started with treatment is about a week long also, I so understand how you feel, to me every second was critical and the doctors did not seem to have any sense of urgency. I complained... got in a couple days sooner, but now 3 months later, I see it really did not make any difference at all. good luck, this is no fun that is for sure, but it is not as bad as we imagined it would be when we heard the word cancer. My husband will not survive this, they gave him a year, he is fighting to prove them wrong. I hope he can

Thanks mrsgoose. I wish you and your husband the best. I hope he proves them wrong. Thankfully a lot of people do.

When my husband was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, after all the testing, radiation and chemo started almost 6 weeks later.  He underwent 35 radiation and 2 chemo treatments from August to October 2010.  Then in February 2011, he had to have a trach and they did another biopsy.  In late March 2011 he had a complete laryngectomy, neck dissection and throat reconstruction.  The PET scan in later November showed no signs of cancer.  Our specialist said that it was hiding behind the swelling.  We were also told that most have radiation and chemo first and after researching this, we found out it was true.  It all depends on if it has spread and how large the tumor is.

He was lucky.  There was no spread to lymph nodes but the tumor was large.  It generally takes several weeks for testing, biopsy, etc. before treatment is started.  Be sure you have someone who has dealt with this type of cancer.  Same goes for the surgery.  You need someone that has done this surgery and knows what they are doing.  We were lucky because our local ENT referred us to Emory Winship Cancer Center because he didn't do the surgery.  Said we needed someone who specializes in this surgery because there could be more needed to be done, which in my husband's case turned out to be true.

Wishing the best -- Sharon

Hiya

When I first started this journey with my bot tumour which was a T4 tumour with N2 involvement (two lymph nodes), I was an emergency case and had a trachea placed immediately.  It took some weeks before I actually started treatment and as soon as I started chemo I noticed an improvement in my pain levels.  My tumour grew while I was in hospital but it took as long as it did and because I was quite ill at the time I didn't even question the amount of time it was taking to get treatment started.  ANyway, guess I am just trying to say that it did take a bit for mine to get started but once they did it was effective.  I wish you and your SO all the very best.

Julie