Trach is out!

Monday, March 2, 2009: Ron had an appointment with his Medical Oncologist today to discuss chemo. Unfortunately Ron cannot have more chemo unless we find another MO to agree that chemo would help at this point. Ron's Tumor Board does not believe that more chemo would do any good. Their opinion is to wait until the cancer comes back before doing more chemo. The MO says that he is sure the cancer will come back, it is just a question of how soon. After the last surgery, the cancer was back within two months. So now we have an appointment with an MO up at UW-Madison. If she agrees that we should go for chemo now before the cancer returns, we will do so. Ron's MO wants him to have Carboplatin, Taxol, and 5FU. Very rough chemo for about 4-6 months.
Wednesday, March 4 we went back up to UW-Madison for the swallow study. That was done first and it went great! Absolutely no aspiration issues so we don't have to worry about him swallowing wrong. It is very difficult for him to get things to the back of his mouth though. He is reluctant to drink anything. I have to keep nagging him. I'm afraid if he doesn't keep swallowing liquids, he will never progress to food. After the swallow study we saw the surgeon and he removed the trach. His speech continues to progress also. He still has little control over his tongue, everything is still numb, but he is able to be understood when he talks. He also has quite a drooling problem right now, but he cannot tell when he is drooling because everything is so numb. That embarrases him, but it can't be helped so he deals with it. So our next appointment is for next Tuesday, with an MO in Madison. I am hopeful that she will agree to the chemo.
So that's it for the update. I'm not feeling very well either. I have pneumonia right now, but I am now on medication so I should be better soon. It's always something! I just hope I will be able to go back to work on Monday. I have missed so much time already, I just have to feel better by then!