Chuck Schaffer

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From the beginning....Chuck was experiencing some pain and discomfort in his mouth and ear in August.  He had what felt like an earache, but it hurt to open his mouth as well.   There were thoughts that it was related to some dental issues he had going on, or that the stress and grief were manifesting in physical symptoms, but it turns out it was cancer.  
There was testing done and it was initially thought that it was just in the soft tissue of the mouth, but when they went in to remove it (days before Hurricane Matthew), they found it was in the bone and could not be removed.  
There was some delay in follow up after the surgery, due to fall out from the Hurricane, power outages, doctors rescheduling appointments that had to be cancelled due to the hurricane.  
He finally was able to be seen and get a treatment plan together, which includes weekly Chemotherapy (begun 10/31, planned for 11 weeks) and daily Radiation (begun 11/1 , planned for 7 weeks).  
A feeding tube was also placed before the chemo started, as it's become difficult for Chuck to open his mouth much, and the dental problems have resulted in the lost of most of his teeth, rendering his previous dentures useless.   Unfortunately, he's having some difficulty handling the tube feedings.  We are working on a solution to help him tolerate them better, so that he can gain some of the weight he has lost, and to help him gain strength to tolerate  the treatments.