Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.
As many of you know, Nils was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal cancer at the beginning of April. He had been working with his PCP to figure out why he was having persistent congestion in his left nostril when a CAT scan ultimately found a mass that was then biopsied and determined to be malignant.
He has been categorized as stage 2, locally advanced with local lymph involvement and it is a squamous cell carcinoma. There are no metastasis to other tissues, which is great. His doctors are proceeding under the assumption that this is "curable" and have given him an 85-90% cure rate.
Because they believe it is curable, Nils will be undergoing a very aggressive course of treatment. He will start this Thursday (5/11) with 7 weeks of daily radiation (M-F) and three courses of chemotherapy - on on Thursday, another in three weeks and the final one at the end of the radiation course. If he tolerates that well enough, there is a potential addition 3 courses of chemo where they add an additional chemo drug to the mix.
All of this treatment will have significant impacts on his body, especially his head and mouth. I won't bore you with all the details and possibilities, but the aggressive nature leaves its mark. We are working to keep him as strong as possible throughout and are hopeful for the gentlest path possible.
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