Mike Engelby

Mike went in on Wednesday January 13th for a scope of his throat. He was complaining of scratchy throat, having trouble swallowing food and was constantly coughing/choking everything he ate. He thought it was a pill that got stuck in there but it got worse as time went on. The scope revealed the worse, they found a tumor that was pretty much blocking his airway. They did a CT scan to verify that it didn't metastasize and found it was localized to his vocal cords. They decided for plan of care to do surgery to install a trach and take a biopsy of the tumor. He had surgery on January 19th in duluth, it went good and the surgeon said he was surprised that Mike was still breathing as he couldn't see his windpipe. Mike came out of surgery and spent the night in ICU last night, he was sore but no major pain that he complained of. He is coughing quite a bit which is normal due to his throat having to get used to the trach and everything. They deflated the cuff in the trach and put on a speaker valve so he could talk to us last night, which was good improvements. Doctor is sure that it is cancer and right now the plan of care is to treat with chemo and radiation to shrink it, they don't want to remove anymore than they did due to bleeding and it's not ideal to remove the voicebox these days. Mike is optimistic and is staying strong, he is determined to be at Sarah's wedding to walk her down the aisle. He told the doctor he will be there, walking her down hair or no hair, just as long as he can. To add Mike & Marie were blessed with their 3rd granddaughter 5th grandchild on the 15.