surgery – dad perfect

December 15, 2021January 5, 2022

Medical Oncology

The past few days have entailed my initial consultations with my Medical Oncologist and Radiation Oncologist. They are the dynamic duo that will be attacking my cancer. The doctors said that cancer surgery on the neck area is “morbid” and “very invasive,” and that we are hoping to avoid that option. I shudder to think of what that entails. I’m sure there are YouTube videos on it, but I’m not typing that into the search bar.

I’m coming to learn lots of new jargon through this whole process — if there’s anything I’d like to contribute to modern medicine, is to help improve the communication to the general public. Medicine needs a science translator, its own Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I’ll put my name in that hat after these treatments are over.

December 10, 2021January 5, 2022

Extraction

The pain stabbed through the fog of (local) anesthesia like an intruding sword. And in another split second, it was over. My bottom right molar had long given me trouble, and had been recommended, by more than one dentist, for extraction, with a bone graft and implant to replace it. However I haven’t been in a hurry to spend a couple grand, so I’d been putting this off for a few years.

November 17, 2021January 5, 2022

Hypopharyngeal

“It’s cancer.”

Dr. Dobson’s eyes said it before her mask-covered mouth could say the words. Even in my post-biopsy-operative anesthesia haze, the words still hit me like a ton of bricks.

The bright side is, the Dr. explained, my children are safe, this cancer was not hereditary. No, this one was all my doing. A silver lining, however tiny, indeed.