Day 3

12/30/2011 
This morning was much better than yesterday's.  Radiation first thing in the morning then Scott went to work.  I had to force him to try and eat breakfast, he said he didn't have an appetite.   His stomach is still upset (not as bad as yesterday) but he doesn't want to take his anti-nausea meds.  He wants to work as long as possible and  (Zofran 8mg) causes drowsiness.  It's so important for Head & Neck cancer patients to eat on their own to keep up their weight as long as possible.  He will probably go to an all liquid diet through his feeding tube with-in 2-3 weeks, which undoubtedly will cause a drop in weight.  Prior and after Chemo infusion, hydration plays a critical role.  If you want to feel better, you MUST drink lots of water to flush the Chemo's by-products from your system. 

Today's symptoms:

slight nausea
low appetite
inside of throat feels slightly sun burnt
a little tired...felt "dopey"
slight headache...Tylenol helped

I can already tell that I'm going to have to find another backdrop wall.  He'll start to fade into this one with each continuing radiation treatment.

12/29/2011 Day2

Scott still has a fever and was vomiting this morning. He has radiation this morning and then we go to "Chemo Class" so I'll ask if this is normal then.

Radiation was much easier than yesterday! He feels like crap though.

At Chemo class they stressed that we should call even if it is at 2 am if there are any concerns. The nurse pulled him out of class, gave him some meds for nausea and he reclined while I finished up. He ended up sleeping all day and finally woke up around 6pm. The fever seems to have broke and he managed to eat some soup.

Friken A if this is only day 2 and he is already feeling like this...what the heck is it going to be like at the 7 or 9 week point?! Honey Badger better get his Rambo gear on.

12/28/2011
DAY 1 PM Chemo Start to finish about 4 hours. Scott napped in his recliner most of the time. He was given benadryl to trick his body into accepting the chemo and not having an allergic reaction....thus the napping. We left the hospital and Scott said he felt kinda funny but nothing really bad, probably side effects from the benadryl. All was fine, he was just tired. Then 2 AM rolled around,he was having a hard time sleeping, had the chills, headache and a fever. His fever was 100.8 but the refrigerator magnet said to call if he had a fever of 101 or over. Crap what should I do? Well today I found out that I should have called. So if you are going through this process don't hesitate...call.

12/28/2011

DAY 1: AM Radiation... normally these visits should only last a half hour with 15 min. of that being the actual "zapping". Well mister honey badger was in his mask strapped to the table for over an hour...yikes. He was close to having a melt down, but reminded himself that the honey badger is a bad ass and must maintain. The cooling valve on the machine was malfunctioning and had to manually cool prior to it rotating to the next area to zap. So it was not a very nice introduction to radiation. But he was able to laugh about it afterwards. No pain was involved during radiation and just a flushed feeling of the skin afterwards.

12/27/2011 PICC line placement.

12/21/2011 Feeding Tube placement

What the heck is this thing on the side of my husbands neck.

10/22/11 Bellied up to a local sports bar table, in between ordering another beer and cheering on Boise State Football, my husband nonchalantly says "by the way, we may have a little issue here with my neck". I put down my drink and looked at the more than obvious lump protruding from the side of his neck. Holy crap, I can't believe I didn't notice it before! Have you ever had an instant realization of knowing something. In that instant my stomach twisted and my heart wrenched. I knew without a doubt he had cancer. Three days later we were sitting in front of an ENT doc listening to him say..."yep, that's pretty big, we need to figure out what this is". I most always appear calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I'm a mix of Ron White the crude comedian and the neurotic character of DEXTER's sister Deb. So you can imagine the secret dialog inside my head was much different than what actually passed my lips. Politely responding "yep we do" we exited the office and prepared for the next step, whatever that might be.

So after an ultrasound, biopsies, a PET-scan, tonsillectomy with more biopsies, a tooth extraction, another biopsy with ultrasound, insertion of a feeding tube, a pic line, visits with a radiation oncologist, visits with another oncologist, Cat-scan, making of a radiation mask and teeth guards,visits with a dietician, dental visits......oh my gosh, I'm sure I've forgotten something....we sit here today starting treatment.

You'll have to excuse the word "we" I tend to use, I know it is my husband Scott having to go through all this torture, I just tend to lump us together as one unit after 30yrs of togetherness.....until he does or says something absolutely stupid and off the wall, then he is all on his own. Ha ha if you know Scott, then you know what I mean and you're laughing along with me. I love him though and will probably love him even deeper as treatment gets harder and we make it through to the other side of this.

The reason for this blog is to possibly help others who might be starting the path that Scott has now taken his first steps upon. If Head and Neck Cancer has entered your life and you're anything like me, you've been scouring the internet looking at what might be next. There are some real freaky stories out there which leave you quivering in your boots...I'm hoping to not have any of those stories. ha This will be a photo journal with no sugar coating and sprinkles. We will document this journey which the doctor discibed as going to hell and back. The point is, you will see someone make it through to that other side! As bad as it may get, it can be done, has been done, and will be done...easy for me to say, right.

Diagnosis: Head & Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
No Primary site found... affecting left lymph nodes on neck
(What does this mean? They can't find where this cancer started, all biopsies came back negative and the Pet-scan didn't unearth it) I guess a very small % of cancer patients are difficult like this. What happens is that they will widen the scope of treatment area and it will always be a mystery. I always knew he kept secrets!

Treatment: Scott opted to skip surgical extraction of lymph nodes at this time in hopes that Radiation and Chemo will do the job. If after these treatments the nodes are still present, they will do surgery in hopes that they will be much smaller. With the size of the nodes right now, it would be a pretty big surgery with some possible permanent damage....like losing the movement of his left shoulder.


Chemo: Cetuximab trade name of Erbitux once a week for 7 weeks

Radiation: IMRT 35 sessions so everyday Monday through Friday for 7 weeks


Put your big girl/boy panties on cause here we go:
or as Scott likes to say: Nothin can stop the Honey Badger (referring to himself)
This is funny and to understand, you must watch youtube video entitled :

The Crazy Honey Badger (original narration by Randall)