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Sunday, May 23 2010
As you may know 2009 was a tough year for me being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in February. However after radiation treatment, chemotherapy and surgery I was declared in remission in January 2010.
Unfortunately during a routine visit to my dentist he found a suspicious growth beneath my tongue and I immediately visited my doctor and a specialist who took a sample for a biopsy.
The results came back in about a week and they were positve for cancer.
After numerous x-rays, MRI's and a PET scan it was found that the cancer was localised in my mouth and with a partial glossectomy (tongue surgery) and a modified radical neck dissection (remove lymph nodes) there was a very good chance of a full recovery.
This surgery is scheduled for Tuesday May 25 at the Kaiser hospital in Walnut Creek and I hope to be reporting back here a couple of weeks later!
One of the byproducts of the surgery was that I had to shave off my beard which has graced my face for over 40 years! As you can imagine this was a big event and today we had the "Great Beard Removal Extravaganza and Barbeque" here at home. We were lucky to have good weather and virtually all the family turned out (with many volunteer barbers) and the beard came off! For those of you who haven't seen me without a beard I am showing a cleanshaven photo on the left. A poll was taken afterwards as to what the next step would be after surgery, remain clean shaven, have a full beard again,a goatee, a long moustache or a regular moustache. These can be seen in the other images. However the most important vote (Sharon's) was for a full beard so I guess I'm back to growing it again!!
June 1,2010
The surgery went well and I was released from the hospital May 31. Unfortunately I had to keep the feeding tube that went up my nose to my stomach as the swelling of my tongue and neck was still
pretty bad.
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