Friends/Family of Deb:
Greetings from Potomac. With Dad’s blessing I wanted to send a little email to the fam/kids to make sure everyone knows what is going on with the Mommer in – as we now call – her first trimester with the big C.
Given Dad is the CEO of this venture, Mom I’ll give you veto power as Head of the Board and Founder, he will be the one with the most relevant medical facts throughout Mom’s brief and smooth visit to Cancertopia. But, to ensure an inclusionary environment is noted in our GlassDoor reviews – I thought I’d first break down what the facts are and then recount what I learned yesterday while visiting Gtown Hospital.
WHAT WE KNOW
Mom unfortunately does have cancer. Because she descends from ancestors that must have carbon fiber in their bones, she will be just fine and – second only to the bonus of added street cred – will now add yet another bullet point to the growing list of topics on which she (and Pop-pop) are experts on.
Below is a brief HPI (history of present illness, idiots):
Cancer Type: Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Note: anecdotally, squamous cell carcinoma occurs commonly as a skin cancer as well. The treatments for these two distinct cancers are wildly different – so in conversational cancer land, if someone you’re speaking to says “I also have had that” they likely are referring to the rotting skin they had removed 5 years ago from their right shoulder after too many summers in Myrtle Beach chasing tail.
Diagnosis: Made after a CT Scan of the region showed a possible issue in the area and confirmed by a Biopsy last week. During the biopsy, the Head and Neck Surgeon (Otolaryngologist) took a sample of the questionable tissue for lab work after which it was confirmed that Mom has very early stage SCC – with a small laceration (tumor) at the base of her tongue.
Note: with cancer, you often hear about it spreading – which is bad. Cancer cells are basically normal cells on crystal meth. One of the issues often discussed with SCC of the Throat and Tongue (they are lumped together because often tumors in the region span both the throat into the neck) is spread to the lymph nodes. I am too tired to explain what lymph nodes do but basically it’s a transit network in your body (like circulatory or nervous system) that if penetrated by cancer cells, then gives them a beltway to quickly convince other normal cells to do meth and become cancerous. For example, Breast Cancer often spreads to lymph nodes in the arm pit – which is why it’s so obnoxiously deadly even though we have early screening measures and all that good stuff.
Mom’s cancer likely has not spread to the Lymph Nodes in her neck, but that is going to be confirmed with a PET scan. Positron emission tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test that allows your doctor to check for diseases in your body. The scan uses a special dye that has radioactive tracers. These tracers are injected into a vein in your arm. Your organs and tissues then absorb the tracer.
Treatment: I don’t want to put too much detail here because we need to wait for results of the PET scan and MRI (they use the MRI to see the whereabouts of the tumor – how far into your normal bodily structures it has penetrated etc.). With the big C, there are three main weapons. Surgery, Radiation, and Chemotherapy. According to Dr. Harter (the Radiologist-Oncologist we saw at Gtown yesterday) you typically only need to and want to throw two such weapons at the cancer. Because of the logistics of Mom’s SCC, likely Radiation & Chemo will be the course of action but that will be confirmed only by Dad after appointments this week.
From what I have gathered Radiation will be first around 6-7 weeks. According to Todd this is when the most weight is lost, silver lining obviously is Mom’s beach bod will be on fleek come June #hottiewithabody.
I’ve provided some bullets below that offer answers to questions I had answered yesterday in between verbally assaulting receptionists in georgetown and physically assaulting the vile mechanical structures within Gtown’s sprawling shantytown.
– Dr. Harter said this is the earliest he’s seen a cancer of this type symptomatic, meaning usually patients with SCC this early don’t show symptoms and that mom caught it so early she’s already ahead of the game.
– Cancers of this type 90% of the time are curable, that means COMPLETELY GONE after treatment. That’s unheard of in the land of Cancertopia.
– Having SCC of Throat and Neck does not mean Mom is more susceptible to cancer in the future.
– Dr. Davidson said Mom isn’t malnourished so she likely won’t suffer damaging effects of weight loss (my personal favorite – thanks Dr. D for that Friday afternoon comment LOLOL).
– Mom is a creature unlike any other that will have to endure the storms involved with visiting Cancertopia, but per usual will come through bigger (smaller) and better than before.
Next Step: Mom has appointments this week as I previously stated and I’ll defer to dad to add anything and everything I missed as he sees fit. But treatment – Radiation – I assume is going to start soon after confirmation this week.
Love you all! Mom you’re the best!
The Dog Hair Diaries 