Our Fight Thus Far

(Not so) Quick recap, for those who may not know. My dad was diagnosed with Parotid Gland Cancer in December of 2007. He had 2 different surgeries in January of 2008 to remove the gland, tumors and lymph nodes involved in the cancer. Once he was healed from the surgeries and the doctors felt he was clear to begin treatment, he did so with IV chemotherapy every 3 weeks and also oral chemo therapy for about 2 weeks out of every month. While this was hard on him, he continued to fight through and stay positive through out. He continued that for about a year and with each PET scan showing more and more regression of the cancer. With his first diagnosis, we also discovered that the cancer had spread to a couple of spots on his spine and so during a chemo break after that year of treatment he had radiation to the back area for about 4 weeks. Again he got through that like a champ with the help of all of his family and friends. When all of this was finished, the doctors continued to monitor him and when he started having some ear and neck pain another CT scan was done, which showed 2 massess that were highly suspicous for cancer. His ENT doctor was recomending surgery and informed us some of the dangers, because one of the tumors was very close to the Carotid artery, which made the surgery very difficult. My dad had his most recent surgery in the beginning of this past June. We had the waiting area filled with all of our family and it was a long day, but we recieved great news at the end. He made it through surgery fine and the doctors were confident they got all of the cancer and with any damage to the carotid artery. There was a neurosurgeon and ENT surgeon on the case and both were insistant on starting radiation ASAP and possibly chemotherapy concurrently. We knew it was going to be a long hard fight ahead of us, but if he was willing to fight, we were going to be there every step of the way to support him and so we have.