going in for surgery

[ctier240]

I hope all goes well Dan.
I'll be thinking of you.

Christopher

[cuda6666]

Yes, Dan. Best wishes for sure. I miss marveling at the speed of that Honda.

[mario a]

Best of luck to you Dan. I might be at Dana Farber sometime in the near future for a stem cell transplant myself. I understand it is a top notch hospital. Remain confident and strong!! MB

[offcamber09]

Good luck Dan. I'll have a good thought for you.

-Scott

[lou m]

I've been exchanging messages with Dan's wife Ginger. He came through the surgery well. Dan will be in the ICU 3-5 days. They were awaiting some test results from the neck biopsy. The tongue surgery was such that he can speak to his family. He may need some speech therapy to get some of the southern drawl back
I'm sure he'll post some later.

[alisonnic]

Thanks for the update, Lou! Best wishes to Dan in his recovery.

[StephanAlfa]

HOT-DIGGITY-DOG YA'LL!
That is some great news! :thumbleft:

[DanB]

Hey everybody! I've been at home since Saturday, just now plugged the computer back in. The results were pretty good, it seems like I've kept most of my oral tongue and all of my base-of-tongue. They had planned to either sew the tongue up, or apply a skin graft, or a radial forearm flap (which involves taking not only a layer of skin but a vein and an artery as well from the forearm), depending on how much they had to remove. I'm very happy to say that they were able to just stitch it up without a graft. What they had to remove was smallish relative to the range of their expectations. I was actually speaking in the recovery room, but time and probably speech therapy will be required. My expectation is to be about 85-95% of my previous level of intelligibility (~65% at the moment).

Currently I have Frankenstein's monster staples in my neck extending down from behind my right ear to a couple of inches above my collarbone, and over to mid neck. Looks pretty creepy! Tomorrow the staples come out.

The important thing is how the biopsy of the neck lymph nodes goes. If there is only one involved node, and the cancer is well encapsulated, there is the possibility that radiation and chemo won't be required. Which would be nice... Should know within the week.

Thanks again, everyone, and keep me in your thoughts/prayers/meditations/etc., not outta the woods yet!

[DanB]

Oh yeah, go to the dentist twice a year and specifically request an inspection of your mouth for signs of cancer! Dentists are doing this a lot more now, hopefully it will become de rigeur in the future. Meanwhile, be sure yours does an inspection while he's in there!

[Mark Swinehart]

Dan, the Swineharts are glad to hear from you.

Hope you have a complete and speedy recovery without a need for chemo or radiation.

[StephanAlfa]

Oh yeah, go to the dentist twice a year and specifically request an inspection of your mouth for signs of cancer! Dentists are doing this a lot more now, hopefully it will become de rigeur in the future. Meanwhile, be sure yours does an inspection while he's in there!

Interesting approach. While you are in for root canal, might as well check the rest of your mouth...
Too bad they can't check for hemorroids or prostrate from these as it would have been less painfull given one's already under novacaine .

All kidding aside, I continue to pray for your good health and speedy recovery.
Keep sending news on your progress!

[WillM]

Dan,

Great to read your update and know that all has gone as well as we hoped!

Here's hoping for continuing good news and speedyrecovery.

- Will

[DanB]

GREAT NEWS:
At my post-op appointment at Dana-Farber today we got the results of the neck lymph nodes biopsy. All nodes are clear, no cancer! And the margins looked good on the tongue tumor, which turns out to have been a bit smaller than estimated at 1.8cm long by 4mm deep.
So, technically I was T1, N0, which is Stage 1. A LONG stretch better than the T2, N2 or Stage III which it might have been.

Thanks to ALL of you guys for being here for me.

All for now, I'm going to bed. Between eating actual really sorta solid food for the first time after surgery this evening, and talking on the phone with family (both a real workout for my beleaguered tongue), I'm BEAT. Feeling GREAT, though

Dan

[rajito]

Congrats Dan. That is great news. Sooooo what you're saying is, I have no chance in SPB or SSA next year?

Raj

[Grippy]

That's great news Dan! Congrats! I wish you a speedy recovery.