Living with Head and Neck Cancer

April 2008, 45 year old Billy a hospital security officer who raised his two young daughters on his own, never smoked, ate well and went to the gym daily had a wisdom-tooth pulled. He went on his annual golf trip with his buddies noticing the side of his mouth was very sore. He assumed it may have been infected. He returned to the dentist and they gave him an antibiotic three different times.

Over the next four months and many more dentist and doctor appointments it was determined he had stage IV cancer of the parotid gland. This by this time has caused facial paralysis because the tumor was squishing the nerve. August 2008 After a 12 hour surgery the tumor was removed. Sept to November radiation and chemo In December after a petscan the cancer has spread to the other side of his face and below his arms worst case scenario it is in the lymph nodes. It may be a year if we are lucky.

There are no clinical trials that will take him at this point. He is considered terminal, yet he gets up every day and goes to work. He is not ready to give up nor will he ever be. We are asked do you even want to try chemo again. of course we do!