Richard Wedge

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.

Dad had his wisdom tooth taken out in February.  He noticed it wasn't healing so he went to a local dentist who referred him to an oral surgeon. This oral surgeon saw something suspicious and referred him to Mayo.  Dad underwent several tests at Mayo including a CT scan, biopsy, and ENT consultation. These tests confirmed the doctor's suspicion that this was cancerous. It is called carcinoma of the right retro molar trigone. Basically, he has cancer in the back of the mouth which has invaded into the mandibular bone (jawbone). He also has lymph node involvement, so he will have major surgery on Wednesday, May 28. In the surgery, they will take out the tumor with part of his jawbone and then hopefully reconstruct the jawbone with a bone from his leg.  Dad's cardiologist feels his heart can handle this long surgery.  On Tuesday, he will have a CT scan of the blood vessels to his leg followed by a surgical consultation. Dad and Mom are doing as well as can be expected and are thinking very positively about the prognosis.  It will be a long day on Wednesday, but we will keep everyone updated.  We appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers.  ~Carrie and Anne