Carol Pearce

12/14/2017
The growth in my left sinus is not a polyp.  It is a tumor.  They admitted me to UNC yesterday.  I had a bunch of tests yesterday and last night.  They are doing a biopsy to see if it is cancer this afternoon.  They have not seen anything this big before.  It will take about a week to get the results of the biopsy.  They have a team of six specialists who will decide on the best surgery/plan of action.



Just got back from the biopsy.  They are keeping me at UNC another night.  They are pretty sure it is squamous cell carcinoma and an inverted papilloma.  Won’t know definitely until they get the biopsy results.  They will have to pull my upper teeth and give me radiation and chemotherapy prior to surgery - hopefully shrinking the mass.  I will be going home tomorrow.  Then waiting for the results. 😢



12/15/2017
Got released from the hospital this morning.  Will have an appointment with the surgery team next Wednesday.  Talked with one of the surgeons around 7 this morning.  They are pretty sure it is squamous cell carcinoma.  The initial treatment will probably be chemotherapy to try and reduce the size of the tumor so they can surgically remove it.  Then if they don’t get rid of everything, I will have to get my teeth pulled and have radiation.  Should get the entire plan on 12/20.



1/9/2018


Well my cancer is very rare.  It is squamous cell carcinoma and clear carcinoma.  It is a salivary gland cancer but it is in my sinus.  I also have a 9 mm nodule in my lung.  They are going to do a bronchoscopy to find out if that is cancer too.  I will have chemotherapy once a week for six weeks to shrink the tumor.  After that they will evaluate the results and possibly schedule my surgery.  After the surgery, I will probably have to have radiation.  The chemo will cause me to loose my hair.



1/29/218
Just got home from seeing two of my doctors.  I was worried because my hand is still infected and they wouldn’t do chemotherapy-again.  When I got into the first office, my medical oncologist came in to talk with me.  The treatment plan has changed.  Because they are unsure how much of the mass is tumor and how much is cancer, they are going to do surgery first.  My next stop was one of my surgeons, Dr Adam Zanatian.  They don’t know how much chemo would shrink the tumor so they don’t want to give me poison if it won’t help.  The tumor is very aggressive so they want to get it out.  They will remove the teeth on the left upper side of my mouth from the canine back.  They will make an incision under my left eye, down the side of my nose, and my mouth so they can pull the skin back and get to my bones.  I will be left with a hole in the roof of my mouth.  My partial will be made with a plug for the hole.  I am waiting for Dr Zanatian’s scheduler to schedule the dental appointment and the surgery.