Another appointment

Thomas had another appointment today with Dr. Buchmann. He looked at the flap in his mouth and said everything is healing great, he said that it still in very bulky and so he said that after radiation sometime he will need to have another surgery to remove all the excess skin.. We knew from the beginning that he would have to do this so it wasn't a surprise to us. The speech therapist lady also came in and said she wants his feeding tube out in one week at the latest! Were working on getting it out sooner though. Right now Thomas is eating Coke Slurpee's, jello, pudding and apple sauce. Tonight we went to the store and got lots more things for him to try. Its really hard for him to swallow so its been difficult to find food that he can get down. They also said the feeding tube needs to be out before he has his mask made for radiation, he gets the mask made on march 4Th, they said the mask is very tight and the tube will make it so its not a tight fit. So that's our goal this week is to get that tube out! Well that's its for now! Love you all!

Radiation? Yes, Please!

So Thomas had a recheck today with Dr. Bentz, this was the first time seeing Dr. Bentz since the surgery. Dr. Bentz came in and looked at his mouth and said its looking great!! He said its healing really well and is doing everything its suppose to do! He said that he will give the radiation Dr. the okay to start radiation anytime! yay! We have another Dr appointment with the radiation Dr on March 4Th, and on that appointment they will make a mold (mask) of his face that he will have to wear during the radiation treatments, he said the mask will help it so his face does not move during the treatment, its really important that it doesn't move at all. So hopefully when we go in on the 4Th they will tell us when he can start radiation. Also, Nate, one of the Dr. residents there at huntsman looked at his leg and said its looking good, he said it will take about a year for it to fully heal! wow- i didn't think it would take that long! Well i will update everyone on the next appointment!

Radiation Consult

Well we went in for Thomas's radiation consult on Feb. 8Th. His radiation Dr is this cute Japanese lady named Ying Hitchcock. They went over everything with us and told us what to expect. They said he will need radiation Mon-Fri for 6 1/2 weeks. They said they need to make a mask for thomas's face so that during radiation his face wont move, they said its very important that his head doesn't move during the treatment. They said Thomas cancer has a 50% chance of returning, which really makes me nervous, and they also said that radiation can cause a secondary cancer down the road. But, guess we just have to deal with one step at a time. They said they don't want to start radiation until the skin in his mouth has healed more, they said they will start in about 3 weeks. Oh- and also i think i forgot to tell everyone that when we went to see the reconstructive surgeon last week he told us that Thomas's cancer was so rare and they haven't seen a tumor like his since 2004!! We Love you all! Here is a few recent pictures

Lookin' Good!

This is the skin on the inside of his mouth, its starting to heal. If you click on the picture it will pull it up big and you can see the little hairs that are growing on the inside of his mouth.


This is the trach hole that is closing up!!

First Recheck

Well today we went in to see Dr. Buchmann, the reconstructive surgeon, this was the first time we have gone back into the Huntsman since Thomas was released from the hospital. Dr. Buchmann looked at the flap inside Thomas's mouth and said it looks great and its healing well, he said that he is positive that Thomas will have to have another surgery in 3-4 months to thin out some of the skin that they put into his mouth, when they put it in his mouth they put a ton of extra skin in his mouth because once it starts healing it shrinks and it will also shrink with radiation but the Dr thinks it will still be too big so he will have to have it thinned out, the dr said its a fairly simple surgery and it wont require a hospital stay. They also took out Thomas trach today and they removed the 34 stitches that were in his leg. They kept the feeding tube in because Thomas still isn't swallowing very well because of the swelling in his mouth, they want him to keep putting stuff in his mouth to practice swallowing, they want him to do this like once an hour! Also, the dr wants him putting more weight on his leg so that he can start walking again. I'm so glad that he is healing well!! Our next appointment is on the 8Th, this will be his consult for radiation. And today i got to see the claim that Huntsman sent to our insurance for Thomas surgery and hospital stay! 74,533.00!!!!! WOW!!!! That doesn't include the Dr's portion or the anesthesiologist. THANK GOODNESS FOR INSURANCE!! We hope everyone is doing well, and thanks for everyone who continues to keep us in their thoughts and prayers! Love you all!

I think its time for an update!!

Hey Friends and Family!!! Its been a while since i last update so here it goes...
As you all know, Thomas had surgery on 01/22.. we got to the hospital at 6 am and they took him back about 7:30 am.. They had to put the trach in while he was still awake and then they knocked him out for surgey.. Dr. Bentz did the first part of the surgery, he is the one who removed the tumor and lymph node, they made an incision from the middle of his lip, down his neck and over to his ear, he removed all the tumor, the tissue and gums and the lymph node. His part of the surgery took about 2 hours. Then it was time for Dr. Buchmann, he was the reconstructive surgeon, his part of the surgery took almost 9 hours, he had alot of work to do. When they removed the bone and arterys from his leg they found out that he only had one artery instead of two, so they were a little concerened about that, they put they bone and the one artery into his mouth anyway. The dr was really worried about it for about 2 days, he would come in twice a day and check it and make sure it looked right, he was worried that it wasnt getting enough blood, so they were talking about putting leeches in his mouth, but he would have lost alot of blood and they said he would need about 10 blood transfusions, after worrying about it for 2 days the dr said that its finally starting to look right and he wasnt worried about it any more, phew!!! I was very nervous about it!! The hospital stay had its ups and downs, Thomas had a few rough days, and i had several emotional days, but after 7 days in the hospital he got released!!! He had to be sent home with his trach and his feeding tube, were hoping to get the trach out this thursday when he goes in for his follow up appointment, we also have a consultation schedueld for radiation, he will have to start that soon. We have had home nurses and home physical therapy come to our house and work with him. He is doing really good and the swelling is coming down alot!! He still cant talk too well and he cant swallow much foods, he has a little bit of apple sauce and thats about it, hes living off 9 cans a day of ensure drinks that go through his feeding tube. We want to thank all of our friends and family who have been their for us through this whole process and for those who came to visit us in the hospital! We also want to thank everyone who has donated to Thomas's recovery fund, we are still accepting donations and we are still needing items for the silent auction. We hope everyone is doing well and we love you all!!