The day started on sour note when John's Hopkins called to say that the insurance company would only pay for the PET scan and not the CT. As disappointed as we were, Ernie went ahead with the PET scan. By the end of the day we had the results: "no cancerous mass"! The lymph nodes still show some activity but the surgeon was unconcerned at this point. He will be our "go to" guy for the next five years-the typical time that cancer patients are monitored. We will see him every 2 months at first. If Ernie continues to be symptom free, the time between visits will be extended.
The swallowing specialist was also impressed with Ernie's progress. His vocal cords look fine but she observed that he is relying on his "false vocal cords" when his voice tires. This is probably a habit he developed when his vocal cords were too swollen to use. She and the surgeon agreed that Ernie would benefit from some vocal therapy and recommended someone at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
The surgeon also had some reservations about the oral infection diagnosis. In his opinion, the coating on Ernie's tongue looked to him like "radiation debris" not infection. We are hoping he is right as the antibiotic makes Ernie so nauseous that he can hardly function. We see the infectious disease doc on Wednesday and hope he agrees with the surgeon.
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