The Beginning
Journal entry by Lynn Fifer — May 3, 2018
I didn't give enough "back story", did I. Bill's cancer is metastatic squamous cell carcinoma in the lymph nodes of the upper left quadrant of his body: his neck, shoulder area and armpit. I noticed a small lump on his neck on St. Patrick's Day (March 17) and things have been moving very fast since then. We saw our GP on Monday 3/19, and she sent him for a CT scan on 3/22. It showed more than one tumor, so the next step was a biopsy the following Monday 4/1. They were malignant. Monday 4/9 he met with oncologist Dr. Joshua Ruch at the Cowell Family Cancer Center here in Traverse City, and he scheduled a PET scan for 4/18 to learn the extent of the cancer, hoping it was contained and had not spread to other organs. It is confined to the area noted above. Then a week of getting 'fitted' for radiation (he has 3 new tiny dot tattoos), getting blood work, filling out forms. Dr. Ruch recommended chemo and radiation together, so Monday 4/30 Bill had his first round of chemo, a drug called Erbitux. Next Monday 5/7 he gets chemo in the morning and radiation in the afternoon. The doctor seems fairly optimistic about this, says "if you have to have cancer, this is one of the better ones to have"😊
