July 25
The day of the surgery. We had to be at Mayo at 5:30 a.m.

Surgery started at a little before 7:30 a.m. A nurse called us about 4 hours in and told us it would be another 2 plus hours. Eddie was in surgery for about 6.5 hours.

Crystal, Maria, my parents, Megan and Grant we all waited together. Megan brought games and Maria had a game on her phone. I have to tell you we were a sight. Grant even brought Eddie a Mickey Mouse. I don't know what I would have done without my family. They are amazing people!

The doctor explained to the girls, my parents and myself everything that was done. The type of tumor Eddie had usually grows like a spur and outward. Leave it to Eddie to be a little different his grow down and flat. Meaning that the tumor crossed both the right and left of the center plain of the tongue. Dr. Hinni had to remove it a little deeper and across to remove the tumor. As far as the doctor is concerned he got it all and when Eddie wakes up he should be cancer free. They also removed a 100 lymph nodes on the right side of his neck. That scar runs from behind the right ear down past his Adams apple about 2 inches into the left side scar. We should find out the results from everything in the next couple of visits.

Eddie stayed in critical care for a night. Some things didn't go to great after the surgery. I ended up staying with him until 4:30 a.m. I headed home to get some sleep and was back up there by 10:00 a.m. Later that day Eddie was moved up to the 5th floor where they take care of ENT and other types of head surgeries or testing of the brain. The nurses where happy that Eddie could walk himself to the bathroom. 

When Dr. Hinni came in to check on Eddie I asked about physical therapy because of the limitations of his neck movement. Dr. Hinni said absolutely if you think its needed. Eddie was all for it.

All of the staff at Mayo were fantastic. One nurse Susan taught me how to use the feeding tube and prepare all the meds. Every day for three straight days they made me learn something.

I'm sure this is TMI but I have to tell it. Friday this little older lady who helps the nurses comes in because Eddie need to go to the restroom. I'm going to call her Paula but I don't think thats right. Paula helps Eddie to the bathroom and here's how it goes.

Paula: Eddie I think you need to take a bath
Eddie: No, I'm fine
Paula: Yes I think you do
Eddie: No I don't and walks into the bathroom

As Eddie is in the bathroom Paula rushes and strips he's bed before he comes out.
Paula to Eddie: You stand there and I'm going to get you towels, soap, and new bedding. Mary Ann you can help him, Right?

So, I helped Eddie and he did feel better and he even read the newspaper.

We were hoping to come home on Saturday but that didn't happen because of his drain.

July 29
Eddie is home! the first thing he want was to take a shower but that wasn't a good idea because of the neck so he took a bath. I had to wash his hair using a cup like it did when the girls were little.

So far, so good. It's going to be a long road but it'll be worth it.

Feel free to text him. He can't talk the great so it's easier just to text him.

I'll try to keep everyone updated more.

Finding out I have cancer

This is the start of our journey
Please forgive us for any grammar, typos, run-on sentences or anything else. And, please don't point them out, we have enough on our plates.

February
Driving home from Inde Motorsports one Sunday afternoon Eddie felt a lump on the left side of his neck. He called the doctor to get it checked out. Went in a few days later. Doctor tells him that he has a virus and gives him antibiotics to take for 10 days. It seemed like it was working because the lump had gotten smaller.

March and April
Nothing much happened

May
NVE 3 in Las Vegas here we come! What a blast.

The lump is still there and now his shoulder is killing him. Eddie goes back to the doctor and he has no idea. Gets a recommendation to go see an ENT. This doctor is great and he's not messing around. He orders a CT scan. The doctors office calls Eddie about 3 days later and tells him they see something on the scan and he needs to come in. The next day Eddie and I go in. The doctor put a scope down his nose to look at whatever is there. NOT FUN! Then he takes a needle biopsy of the swollen lymph node. Again, NOT FUN!

The results come back inconclusive. Eddie is recommended to a specialist ENT surgeon, Dr. Kelsch with Valley ENT in Scottsdale.

We have our annual Memorial Day and Fred's (MA's dad) birthday family trip down to Rocky Point, Mexico. (my home away from home) We plan on staying a week. Our trip was cut short because Eddie had an appointment with the Dr. Kelsch on June 1.

June
June 1
We meet Dr. Kelsch. This guy doesn't mess around. I'm sitting in a chair and I can see the CT scan that the doctor is looking at. I can see the a very large lymph node on the left side. Dr. Kelsch puts a scope down Eddie's nose and sees something on the back of his tongue. He recommends surgery to take out the lymph node and get biopsies from the tongue.

June 19
Day of the surgery. Be at the surgery center at 11:00 am, surgery is at 1:00 pm.

It starts out by getting a call from the surgery center asking if Eddie can come in earlier because the first surgery the doctor is doing is running about an hour ahead of schedule. So we make the phone calls telling the family the surgery has been moved up.

The nurse comes in a tells us that the doctors second surgery is having complications and now is running late. By this time everyone is starving and we're holding off because Eddie can't eat.

3:00 pm they finally take him in. The doctor told me that he would send someone out at 4:30 pm to give us a status report. The girls are off to get food! My brother Rick starts telling funny jokes and he even starts laughing before he can get the punch line out. Boy we needed to laugh.

Mom, Dad and Rick are on their phones!

4:30 a nurse comes out and only wants to speak to me. Kind of scary considering the Crystal, Maria, my parents Fred and Mary and my brother Rick are there. She tells me that they tested the lymph node (not good) and the doctor is going to take out more lymph nodes.

7:00 pm the doctor finally comes out and tells us that he's pretty sure the growth on is tongue is cancer. Not something anyone wants to hear. All in all they took out 45 lymph nodes from the left side of his neck. They wouldn't let me go to the recovery room.

8'ish My family is still with me. We finally get to see him. He's talking telling the nurse he wants steak and lobster for dinner! Eddie tells me to bring the yellow Viper so he can drive it home when they discharge him. Ha Ha Everyone leaves around 9'ish and Maria and I head out about 9:45 pm.

I think his buddies are glad he's home.

June 20
Maria and I head over to hospital to bring Eddie home. We show up and Eddie is upset because I left his phone at home. I didn't want him to see all the text messages that I sent out to his friends and there responses. I wanted the doctor to tell him everything. The surgery center lost his clothes. So we sent Maria back home to get them and by this point he was pretty mad about the phone. I called and had Maria bring it back with the clothes. By the time Maria gets back the hospital found his clothes. I gave Eddie his phone and I don't think he realized the gravity of the situation. We get home sometime after 1:00 pm. The only thing Eddie is supposed to do at this point is stay home and get well.

June 21 - 26
Nothing much Eddie is just taking it easy

June 27 - this is where we kind of screwed up

Appointment consultation for radiation treatment. I'm not going to go through this with you all. I'm just going to say they scared the shit out of us!

June 28
Follow up appointment from surgery. We totally should have gone to see Dr. Kelsch before radiation. Dr. Kelsch takes out the stitches. He has a scar from the back of his ear to his Adam's Apple. Eddie was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma at the base of his tongue. Out of the 45 lymph nodes that were taken out only one came back positive. The doctor goes through everything and gives us two treatment options.

Option A Chemo and high intensity radiation

Option B Mayo Clinic operation to remove tumor and maybe half the strength of radiation. We have an appointment on July 9 with the doctor that invented this type of surgery to remove the tumor completely.

Both options have pros and cons.

July 9
We went to Mayo yesterday and met with Dr. Hinni. We really liked him. Dr. Hinni wants to remove the tumor completely and remove 100 lymph nodes on the right side of his neck. Doing it this way Eddie will not have to go through chemo or radiation. The goal is no radiation. It was explained to us that if Eddie has radiation on his throat he will have long term effects down the road.

Mayo will do their own pre-op tests on July 18. Surgery is set for July 25.

July 18
Eddie went and had all his testing done. He filled out all his paperwork and signed everything. So we are ready to go for July 25.

For me I'm losing my hair. I guess I'm under some stress. Ha Ha

July 23
Two nights before surgery.

Let me start this by explain what goes on in the house for dinner. Every night Eddie will say "What's your thoughts on dinner?" And we go round and round on this issue. Now we have a new rule who mentions dinner first has to make the decision on it. Maria is also in on this. 

So last night Eddie walks in and says "I know what we're having for dinner" Maria and I are okay what do you want? Eddie responds "Since I won't be able to eat good food for a while I want El Pollo Loco" Maria and I look at each other and say "you want something good and you pick El Pollo Loco!" So we had that.

July 24
Just found out we have to be at Mayo at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow July 25