University Medical Center, University of Arizona, Tucson.

OK....  Huge thank yous to UMC Tucson.  This is where my husband is being treated.  The Dr. that my husband is seeing has probably seen more SNUC than any other Dr in the US (maybe the world), and he has only ever treated 7 cases. I cannot say enuf good things about Dr. Chiu and his team.  I am probably giving away who we are but I just need to say how wonderful these people have been. Dr. Chiu obviously knows quite a bit about this cancer and what the best approach to treatment is.  The neurosurgeon that performed the brain portion of the surgery was Dr. Michael Lemole who is the same neurosurgeon who performed Gabbie Gifford's surgeries. Amazing group of doctors. We will be traveling to Tucson to meet with the Radiologist, Dr. Chui, and a social worker some time this coming week.  Radiation will begin around the second week in August and will be everyday for 6 weeks.  It will be difficult maintaining 2 homes financially and logistically but these are the best guys in the world and I would not go anywhere else. We will not be in town for my 2 children's birthdays, or when they start school. Thank god that I have a wonderful group of family and friends to call upon to help.  I think today must be gratitude day, because I feel very grateful for what we have and where we are with this devastating disease.

Lets Start at the Beginning...

I'm not really sure where the beginning is. The first time we knew "something" was wrong was when X came home from work with a bloody nose. Not just a bloody nose. I very scary bloody nose. I was working from home that day, and in he comes around 2 in the afternoon holding his nose covered in blood. I called the number on the back of my medical coverage card and the nurse helped us get through getting the nose bleed stopped. That was about 3 months ago, just about the same time X started asking me if it was "normal" to have a headache everyday. Well, we live in the desert and it was allergy season, so headaches and nosebleeds? no big deal right? X is in his 50's in average shape average weight. He's a really smart guy with a very stressful job. Maybe things just start to fall apart in your 50's??

It was the headaches and the pressure that finally became to painful too manage any longer. Now, try to get someone, anyone to pay attention. X's primary care doctor never even looked up his nose. He just kept giving X antibiotics and sending him home. The he saw an ENT. The ENT recognized that this was a serious problem so he scheduled a CAT scan for a week away and surgery for 6 weeks away (we still have not gotten to that 6 week original date). The next thing we did was go to the emergency room. The doctors there assured us it was nothing more than a sinus infection and sent us home with Percoset. While we were at the emergency room I explained to the emergency room doctor that my biggest fear was that he had some kind of .... Cancer... The doctor asured me it was not cancer, actually he said "Its definitely definitely definitely not cancer". BOY I felt better, Phew now I KNOW we don't need to worry about that!! The next night it started to bleed and bleed and bleed.... I called the doctor on call at the ENT. It just happened to be the head doctor at the practice. When he found out we were going to wait 6 weeks for surgery he said... um... no, we will get that fixed tomorrow. X had his first surgery 2 days later. Two days after that; our world changed. SinoNasal Undifferentiated Carcinoma SNUC. shit. That was 06/10/11.