Hi everyone, thank you for checking my site. On March 18th I went to my general physician for a checkup, having problems with pain in my lower back and hip. at the end of the checkup he asked if there was anything else? I replied that I had a sore throat and a persistent pain on the right side of my neck. It had been there a while and I thought it was related to my Rheumatoid Arthritis (persistent low white cell count) I had deduced (home builders know a lot about medical stuff) because my white blood cell count was low all the time, that was why my throat was sore. (brilliant right!!) My doctor started poking around and was concerned because there were some lymph nodes that were also quite swollen. He scheduled a MRI for my back, hip and neck on March 22nd. The following Monday I got a call from him after looking at the films, he was concerned that it looked like a tumor along with the swollen lymph nodes. I now was went to a Ear Nose and Throat specialist and he scheduled a needle biopsy on the affected area, performed on March 28th. On April 2nd I got a call from the ENT that said, yes I had cancer. Next on April 5th a PET scan was scheduled to isolate the cancer and see if there was any other spots. The scan showed another lymph node by my right collar bone and one just above my right lung had cancer. The next procedure was a biopsy on April 11th down thru my throat, the tumor was behind my right tonsil. The biopsy confirmed what the needle biopsy revealed that it is a matastatic squamous cell carcinoma, T2N3cmo Stage 3. Since April 11th I have been to a bunch of wonderful doctors, Oncologists, Radiologists, nutritionists and a few more.
I am grateful for the wonderful doctors and staff at the Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, they are all so nice! and helpful!, explaining everything in great detail.
