everything confirmed. nothing more.

These were the good words that Dr. Lydiatt shared after Mike's biopsy this morning. The mass was confirmed as squamous cell carcinoma, and the lab will have more detailed information for us in about three days. For those of you who like real medical terms, here you are: T-1 / N-2B / M-0 / Stage 4A Dr. Lydiatt did not remove the affected lymph nodes at this time, so Mike's procedure was short and he was sobered up from his anesthesia in time to be out of the hospital before noon. His throat is very sore from the procedure making drinking, eating and talking uncomfortable. He said "this is probably a taste of things to come". Pun intended. I learned that an accurate way to describe Mike's kind of cancer is Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma. (It is the same kind as Michael Douglas, by the way.) It is actually more a "tonsil cancer" than "tongue cancer" because it is so far back down Mike's neck that the tissues are lymphoid or tonsil tissues even though it is technically still on the tongue. The best part of the day was getting to spend 45 unrushed minutes with Dr. Lydiatt talking about potential treatment options. We have our next appointment with him next Tuesday, March 8th to talk in more detail and define our treatment plan. Note: Prayers for wisdom and God's will are very important here. Period. We can't thank you enough for helping guide our journey in this way with your prayers. We are interested in seeking a second opinion both to confirm whatever treatment we move into, and because we think it is the wise thing to do. When asked if there is a cancer center that specializes in OSCC (Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma) we learned that the University of Nebraska Medical Center sees more patients than the Mayo Clinic, probably because of the Head & Neck Cancer Division that Dr. Bill Lydiatt started with his brother Dr. Dan Lydiatt. But the premiere centers for OSCC are probably Sloan-Kettering in NYC and MD Anderson in Houston. We are interested in the option of robotic surgery as a first step to hopefully limit the extent of radiation needed. (We still have much research to do so I don't mean to sound like we understand all the ins-and-outs of all the treatment options.) But while we know that radiation kills cancer cells, we don't want to be ignorant about the long-term side effects of radiation since Mike is still a very young man in our opinion. We don't want to say too much or put the cart before the horse but it was encouraging to be reminded on my trip to St. Louis last week that a doctor friend from our church home in St. Louis is one of the leading robotic head & neck surgeons in the country. All of these "puzzle pieces" are tremendously comforting at a confusing time such as this. Dr. Lydiatt about fell out of his chair when I mentioned Dr. Bruce Haughey's name because he is so renowned in the field. Dr. Lydiatt said that he had just written a research paper where he sited Bruce's work. It is comforting when the world seems small & friendly at times like this. God works in mysterious ways.