Hello everyone. I thought I would throw together a gallery of pictures from my journey with oral cancer. Some of the pictures are graphic and may not be the prettiest thing to look at... you've been warned. I had initially decided not to add these photos in my original blog entries because they are graphic and not the most pleasant to look at. The last thing I wanted to do was chase people away. But, many people have asked to see pictures, so I am providing them now in a blog entry of their own.
Enjoy :)
This is the bottom of my tongue immediately following the biopsy. An oral surgeon removed a small strip of tissue to be sent into pathology for diagnosis. Now, when this happened, the tumor was very small in size. It almost looks as though the entire tumor in question had been removed during the biopsy, but you will see in the next picture that there was plenty of cancer cells left behind. The reason the area is black is because the doctor had to cauterize the area to stop it from bleeding. This was extremely painful... as you might remember from the blog post where I had to be given multiple nerve blocks.
This is the tumor after a week or two of healing. As you can see, the tumor got much larger following the biopsy. The reason for this is because cancer cells multiple much quicker when there is a wound involved. In this case, the wound would not fully heal... which is typical of cancer tissue. The hole in the middle of the tumor was where the biopsy had been taken. Compare this photo to the first and you can see that the tumor grew significantly.
This is one of my best friends: Randy. He was with Jess and I during my experimental round of chemo. This was not the full chemo... just a low dose round of chemo that was included as part of the medical study. The hope was that the chemo would shrink the cancer tumors, making it easier for the surgeons to remove. You will see in the next picture that the chemo dose worked a little bit, but nothing to get overly excited about. It is good having friends willing to sit by your side as you get a poison injected into your body. Then again... Randy really had no other options.
This is the tumor two months after the biopsy had been taken. I took this picture just before surgery. My intent was to use this picture in one of my blog entries, but decided against it. This is what my tongue looked like before surgery.
I must have taken this picture the night of my surgery...but I can't say for sure. Its hard to tell if my eyes are open or not, but I can only assume I took this selfie so I could get a better look at the damage that had occurred.
Again, I don't recall taking this picture, but I must have. You might be able to see my tongue is only visible on the right side of my mouth. This is because my tongue had been cut and folded on the left, leaving what looks like a raindrop or a parrot tongue. You can really see the staples that go from one ear to the other, down and around the natural crease in my neck. The tubes sticking out are part of the "vampire jugs". They are there for drainage.
I took this picture to morning after surgery. I felt really good that morning... thanks to the awesome pain medications. The swelling was minimal at this point, but things changed for the worse. I was not nearly at "chipper" the days following this picture. This picture provides a good view of the drainage tubes.
This picture was taken just before being released from the hospital. All the drainage tubes have been removed. You can see some of the staples under my chin, but the swelling and lymphedema is much worst here than in the picture taken the morning after surgery.
I decided to add this picture because I think it is funny. This is the longest I have ever grown my facial hair. It was getting very itchy... to the point I could no longer take it. I was scared to shave with a normal razor, so I was waiting to buy a new electric razor. You can see the swelling on the right has went down significantly, but the left still looks bad.
I took this picture right after shaving for the first time, which I was immediately regretful for having done. This was the first time I could really see what my face looked like (not hidden by all the facial hair). I was mortified at first. I felt the best work to describe my new look was "lumpy". I considered renaming myself to Mr. Potato-head. I can laugh about it now, but when I first shaved... I about had a panic attack. You can see by my "smile" I was not thrilled.
I know this picture had been added to the blog entry, but I wanted to make sure all the photos found their way into this gallery. This is my PEG. I hate my PEG. It is painful and is more difficult to deal with than I would have hoped. I'm complaining now, but I have no doubt I will be incredibly grateful for it here in a few weeks.
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