During my illness I have gone back to my old days of when I was a professional chef. I worked for Marriott Cooperation for years among other places. After years went by, I totally switched professions becoming a plumber. YEP, Heck of a change, is it not? The stress of the restaurant BIZ was giving me heart problems. I was getting early warning signs of a bad heart attack. So by the advise of my Doctor, I quit. But, even though I have been out of the "BIZ" for a long time.....it is in my... Read Full Story
A good friend of mine and fellow blogger recently wrote an article about love, sex and cancer. She is disturbed by the multitude of women who simply have a slimmer chance at love than men. She has heard story after story of women whose husbands have walked out, sometimes leaving them with young children, when they have cancer. Or waited till they finished treatment, and then walked out. This can happen to men as well, though is not as likely says Jean. I am sure this is true for the majority... Read Full Story
Since completing the last of the Chemo and Radiation treatments I have heard of and met a lot of people with head and neck cancer who have had their life changed since the treatment. There are two things that remain constant through out the stories I have gathered. One is that everyone can respond to the treatments differently. The second,..... things are never exactly the same as they once were. The main thing that has been in my own mind is......when can things get back to normal for me... Read Full Story
What is it like to have had oral cancer and what about the recovery? Why is it seldom caught in the early stages? Why is my loved one so darn irritable when I try to be nice? It is SO DARN Frustrating! WHY,WHY,WHY? Yes, it is frustrating. It is frustrating on those who have the disease and on those who are friends and family of those who are afflicted. Truth is, one can never truly understand until they go through it. GOD FORBID! But as one who is going through it, I shall attempt to paint... Read Full Story
This is what happens when you think you can make it without a feeding tube in place when you do the radiation treatments. Now If I would have been overweight, maybe I could have gotten by with it. But I have a high metabolism and did not get so lucky. I was extremely dehydrated and was loosing my mental faculties. I was in week 6 and started out with 150 pounds. I weighed 123 in this picture. Tis a far cry from the normal pic on the right. It cost me a night in the hospital and some pain... Read Full Story
Ride Against Oral Cancer More than 34,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 8,000 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of those 34,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only half will be alive in 5 years. Surprisingly staggering is it not? This is according to the last stats which have been gathered. Since this time there is a new drug being used in Chemotherapy called Erbitrux which is a tremendous breakthrough... Read Full Story
Well, let me tell you. This radiation stuff, they can have it! It sucks! I had three treatments last week. On Friday, the last of the three, I started feeling a bit ill around 4:00 and it got really bad. On Sat. I thought I was gonna toss my cookies all day long. The pain was horrid. ( good thing I have an ample supply of various pain medications.) By that night I did choke down some green beans and mashed potatoes and lots of jello. Sunday I eat more jello and by the evening I was able to... Read Full Story
I was interviewed by a reporter from a local newspaper, who wanted to write a story about me and my oral cancer. When the article was published on April 24, 2008, I was unhappy with the result, which I thought did not fairly represent me or my attitude towards cancer, and so I have rewritten the story as I wish it had been told in the first place. When the reporter wrote the story it was that of a man who had cancer. Yes, I do have Oral Cancer but this is a story of courage, strength and... Read Full Story
One of the first rules of journalism is that the first rule can change depending on what the editor demands of you for that particular moment. Even through all of the confusion of finding the proper headline to meeting the deadline, one thing remains constant with all good journalists. Journalism thrives on facts. As such, it can be fairly said that the single most important rule is to insure the accuracy of such information being conveyed to the public. I was approached a week ago to do an... Read Full Story
Many have said, " How can you be a survivor if you are still going through treatments?" "How can you be a survivor if you have not been told you are cured?" Please allow me to explain! First off, let us see what Webster has to say. The actual meaning is as follows. Root word is survive. The intransitive verb of that word means: 1 : to remain alive or in existence : live on 2 : to continue to function or prosper The transitive verb means: 1 : to remain alive after the death of (he is... Read Full Story
