August 9, 2010 Biopsy at St. Peters in Albany

AFTER READING THIS ONE PLEASE READ AUGUST 15. I'm unclear why they are out of the order I typed them....hmmmmmm.

Monday August 9 we spent a good portion of the day at St.Peters Hospital in Albany

it is NOT good news.   PLEASE PLEASE do not share with ANYONE at this point....

We do not want to say anything to the girls until we know more about what treatment will be so I can't have this information out so please keep it to us.  

They basically know daddy went in to have a test on Monday and mommy had to drive him home because of the medication that he had to have for the test he wasn't allowed to drive.

They certainly know he's had a sore throat for a while and they know he still has one.

Olivia knows about cancer because in April a close friends mother in law died very quickly ...about 6 weeks....of pancreatic cancer. She was too sick to get treatment by the time

they found it.  Olivia is a VERY perceptive girl...she's always studying what is going on around her even if it doesn't look like she is she pays close attention!

We all know there are different types of cancer which are caught at different stages ...that's a lot for little ones brains to compute...especially Natalie... until we have more information 

I/we  just don't see the sense in telling them much  except daddy is trying to find out why his throat has been sore.

He/We  will be going on to Sloane Kettering as soon as he gets the "official"  biopsy results --which should be in any day-- but the biopsy  on first examination -- that was done during the surgery-- showed it's a malignant tumor...squamous cell carcinoma...not sure if
it's metastisized (sp) until more testing.... although one lymph node near the site doesn't look good but hasn't been tested.  The cancer has not been staged at this point.  

Oral cancer stays hidden without symptoms for quite some time and then he's lived with the symptoms for probably more than a year .....a lot of time has passed for this growth to cause damage...and that it has.  It's fairly large...on back of tongue, tonsil and one other area which I think is the soft palate near tonsil???? but not sure.   Doctor said HE wouldn't even be able to perform this surgery it's so complicated. He suspects they won't do  surgery just chemo/radiation.  We'll know more after Sloane. 

We are in for a difficult journey on SO MANY different levels.  

Please understand at this point most of my correspondence will be via email. Talking on phone  is difficult and risky with the girls here all day....plus I need to stay

focused and not talking about things that could make me cry. Trust me I have cried...and cried...but I have to do it privately. I only have to hold it in for periods of time

then I can release it....   All this is  very scary.  and sad.  

At this point I'm  researching all I can for when we go to SLoane.   I think it best Bob not do all the reading for research. ...it's pretty overwhelming.  I fill him in on what I learn...filtered of course.  I'll keep it as positive as possible.

please lets keep our  conversations when the girls are right there  about normal friend/neighbor talk and not asking about Bob..I feel such a tremendous responsibility  to "do this the right way" ....meaning tell them enough information so not to "hide it" but not so much it would terrify them at this early stage.   We need more information before we can tell them more.  There's no sense in them worrying until we know the plan of action.

Please say prayers.