Jerry Kuchinski

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Hello Everyone!  If you know Jerry you know he is accident prone... Perhaps I should have started this site a long time ago!?!  :-)    About 2 years ago and 3 surgeries later Jerry broke his right heel, because it took so long to heal, he could not walk for most of that 2 years, we kinda put off regular check ups because we were trying to heal the heel!  Anyway, about a year ago his voice changed and he sounded kind of horse.  So we waited to worry about that until the heel was healed. So things are finally starting to look good and we are getting ready for our week of vacation and we decided to get the throat/voice thing checked out on Monday  July 9, 2018 we had an appointment with an ENT Dr.  So they stuck the little camera down his nose and Dr Yoon said I'm sorry to tell you this but it looks like you have Throat Cancer.  We will contact  the University Hospital and get some appointments scheduled. So on Wednesday July 11 we went to the U of M and Dr. Khaja said the same thing.  So lets do a biopsy to verify, we can get you in Thursday or Friday next week,  well we have vacation scheduled next week how big of a deal is it if we wait a few more days?  She said go on vacation and have a good time a few days will not be a big deal., we can do it Monday July 23.  So here we are! 


Monday July 23, 2018 Biopsy and partial tumor removal, confirmation that it is cancer, great!  Deep breath! I (Barb) am so grateful that all of "The Sisters" are there as well as one of Jerry's Daughters. We are in this TOGETHER!!! What a great bunch of Sister-in-Laws I Have!! Of Course Our Daughters are Awesome as well! (we don't do Step Kids, they are all our kids!) So while Jerry is in recovery we all get the information together, ask our questions, shed our tears and take our collective DEEP BREATH!  The Biopsy/tumor removal went well, no excess swelling, no need for a trachea at this time, he will be able to come home this afternoon. Yeah!   He still can talk, much more horse sounding. He's doing good, made me make beef barely soup for dinner.
How it looked, The tumor is around the vocal cords down his larynx a bit but does not appear to be in the esophagus. This last part is good if you know family history, if not sorry but that's all we are saying. 


Diagnosis/Treatment - while more in-depth testing will be done on the biopsy it looks like a 'faster' growing type, if we just do radiation and chemo it probably will come back and surgery will need to be done anyway with greater risk because the radiation and chemo have 'damaged' the throat. The best option is to remove the rest of the tumor, this includes his Vocal Cords and Larynx, possible chemo to come.


What's to come
Thursday July 26, 2018 a PET Scan will be done to see if there are any other tumors in his body. NO, NO, NO!!!
Tuesday July 31, 2018 full Tumor and vocal cord removal will occur. Hospital stay for at least 5 days and no voice for awhile.  


We are both scared to take this journey but not giving in to anything! Life is good and Love is STRONG!  Thank you all for your Love, Support, Prayers and anything and everything else you send our way! We have a new grandchild on the way, Elyse and Christopher, and can't wait to meet it (we don't know if its a boy or girl ) and watch them grow and learn and graduate etc... Life is not over yet, it's just going to be different!
Jerry and Barb