We’re enjoying beautiful weather here in Mesa, Arizona with daytime highs around 80 degrees with 20% humidity and overnight lows in the mid-50s. Can’t beat that.

Yesterday Donna rented a car from Enterprise. Her intention was to drive to Scottsdale for an appointment with her hair stylist. When people ask Donna about finding health care or dental care on the road, she tells them it’s not an issue. Finding someone to do her hair is the challenge! Since she lived in the Phoenix area for about seven years, she has a stylist here who does a great job. In San Diego, she got hooked up with Tonia at Ts Hair of San Diego and she was very happy. So we have those two places covered. This summer, we’ll have to find someone in the northwest.

Anyway, the gal at the Enterprise car rental agency was having trouble with her printer. She was on the phone with her company’s technical support trying to print a contract for the person ahead of us. After about 30 minutes, she gave up and said she would complete the paperwork by hand. By the time she was starting Donna’s paperwork, Donna had to cancel her hair appointment because she would have been 30 minutes late.

Yesterday, we had a visitor for dinner. Stevie Ann Rinehart came to our site here at Apache Wells. She and Donna caught up with each other. We enjoyed conversation, wine and barbeque garlic shrimp for dinner.  Stevie Ann was on of the first people Donna met when she moved to Arizona in 2002. That was actually a tough year for me.

Garlic shrimp with basmati brown rice and broccoli

In yesterday’s post, I described the diagnosis of a secondary tumor in a lymph node on my neck. This took place at Christmastime. The day after Christmas, I had another appointment with Dr. Brown. He advised me to have someone drive me to his clinic, so I would have a ride home. He would be taking tissue samples and I would be under sedation.

He had a pretty good idea of where he would find the primary tumor. He had already examined me once before. This time he looked into my throat and told me he would be cutting some tissue to send to the lab. He said the area of soft tissue around my right tonsil had the texture of a strawberry. He said this is what throat cancer looks like.

Throat cancer. I had been under the care of an allergist for the previous two years. When Dr. Brown said throat cancer, I thought about my allergist and the treatment I was receiving. He had tested me for allergies and found I had severe reactions to tree and grass pollen. I was on a regiment of monthly allergy injections with periodic exams. This doctor was looking into  my throat on a regular basis.

About six months earlier, during an exam, he said he would prescribe a nasal spray that would relieve sinus pressure and also reduce the pain in my throat. I thought, pain in my throat? I didn’t complain about pain in my throat. Right then, an assistant opened the door to the exam room and asked the doctor if he could step out for a moment. When he returned, he gave me the prescription. I was distracted and forgot to ask him why he thought I had throat pain. I think he was looking at cancerous throat tissue and dismissed it as an allergy symptom.

Dr. Brown sliced some tissue from my throat. He said he would have the results by the following Monday, New Year’s Eve. He wanted me to come back on Monday to discuss the results. My daughter, Alana, had driven me to the appointment. On the way home, she said she didn’t want to return to Washington State University in Pullman where she was studying to be a nurse. She wanted to skip a semester and take care of me. I wouldn’t have it. I told her the best thing she could do for me was finish her schooling and go on to become a nurse, which was her dream. She accomplished this goal a few years later after transferring to the nursing program at Arizona State University. She graduated with an RN-BSN degree.

Alana graduating from ASU

On New Year’s Eve, Dr. Brown confirmed that I had throat cancer. He said I needed surgery, a procedure called a radical neck dissection. During this procedure, the tumor would be surgically removed from inside my throat and the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle would be removed from the right side of my neck. This is the large muscle that attaches to the inner third of the clavicle, next to your throat. The other end of the muscle attaches to the skull, behind your ear.

Then he said, “I do these surgeries on a frequent basis, but you don’t want me to do your neck dissection.” He said, “I follow the traditional technique, which cuts the tenth cranial nerve. Once that nerve is damaged, you’ll never raise your right arm above your shoulder again.” Then he explained to me that most people with this diagnosis are much older than me. Damaging their tenth cranial nerve is usually the least of their worries. He said that since I was relatively young, fit and active, he wanted to send me to see a surgeon at the University of Washington Hospital. This surgeon, Dr. Weymuller, had pioneered a new neck dissection technique that would spare the nerve. I would retain my arm function.

I sat there numbly while this information was sinking in. Dr. Brown said he would set up an appointment with Dr. Weymuller for me. He said he wanted to discuss my case with him and felt he could get me in quicker than if I tried to set the appointment myself. He said he would call me later with the appointment time.

Later, Dr. Brown’s office called me and said I had an appointment for an exam and consultation with Dr. Weymuller on Friday, January 4, 2002. I had been off work over the Christmas holiday break while all of this was going down. On January 2nd, I notified my boss of the diagnosis. I told him I would need a little time off for the surgery and recovery.

On Friday, I met Dr. Weymuller. He poked and prodded inside my mouth and throat. He palpated my neck. Then he told me that he had already reviewed my case file and lab reports. He agreed with Dr. Brown’s assessment – I needed to undergo a modified radical neck dissection. He said since I had a secondary tumor in the lymph node, we already missed the opportunity for early detection. We shouldn’t waste any more time. He told me if I agreed to have the surgery, he would schedule it at the University Hospital.

I said, “Of course,I agree to the surgery. The alternative is to die.” He said he would send a nurse in to schedule the surgery. He shook my hand and left the exam room.

The nurse came in and opened a calendar on the computer in the room. She was scrolling through days and saying how busy the schedule was. She kept scrolling, I could see she was looking at dates in March and saying things like, “Oh my, where am I going to find an opening with enough time for this? We need to block six hours.” The she said, “It looks we’ll be scheduling in early April.”

I said, “Umm…I was under the impression that Dr. Weymuller felt this was urgent. He said we shouldn’t waste any time.” She said, “Oh, let me go talk to the doctor. I’ll be back in a minute.” A few minutes later, she returned and said, “How’s next Tuesday afternoon?”

This is a long story that will require a couple of more installments. To be continued…