Charmin! Why Charmin?!

Why Charmin?

            (NOTE:  Some have noted that they are unable to leave comments on the blog.  I honestly don’t know why there’s a problem because I have the “comments accepted” setting on. And, that high tech guru Linda E. was able to leave a comment!!) 

So, how in the world did I come up with a name for a lump in my neck like Charmin?  Honestly, I didn’t come up with the name, it was actually my brother, Steve, who came up with it, but read on to find out why.

            In late January 2013, I was vacationing at one of my happy places in the world, Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Of course, Muggy was with me, but we were joined by Muggy’s sister Cathy and her husband, Dale.  The four of us were enjoying the laid back life of Beach Island Resort (BIR) in Cocoa Beach.  Of note is the fact that BIR was originally a motel at Cocoa Beach in the early days of the space program.  The astronauts were flown into Patrick Air Force Base, just south of Cocoa Beach, and then transported over dirt road to BIR to stay during the training at Cape Canaveral. 

            We had an amazing week during our stay.  I even played golf two times in the same week!!  On Thursday of that week, we all went out for pizza to Anacapri Restaurant; in our opinion, the best pizza in Cocoa Beach!  As I sat at the table, I nonchalantly placed my hand on the left side of my neck and I noted a lump just below the jawbone. 

Upon return home, I made an appt. with Dr. Tayag and he immediately scheduled a CT.  Upon reviewing the CT, he said there was some necrosis and that the lump will likely need to come out.  He referred me to an ENT surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Walker. 

Dr. Walker performed a fine needle aspiration (FNA) in his office that day and scheduled a follow-up.  The results of the FNA were inconclusive, so he scheduled another CT.  By now, it was mid-March. 

March slid into April with little to no change to the lump.  Sometime in April, I met with Dr. Walker again and he said he thought a PET scan would be appropriate.  So, he scheduled that for May 2nd. 

Meanwhile, I had developed a habit of regularly checking the lump.  Maybe I was thinking it would just go away.   And Muggy would frequently remind me to stop squeezing it as her brother Tony, the doctor had said don’t squeeze it..

So, my brother Steve and his wife Lynn visited in late April and Steve said (based on Tony’s suggestion to not squeeze the lump), that I should name it Charmin, so Charmin came to be.

The PET scan accomplished on 2 May.  (Positron Emission Tomography, basically, you are injected with radiated glucose solution.  The active parts of the body (organs, brain, etc) show vivid contrast due to the use of the glucose and thus, any cancer or other activity. 

The follow-up with Dr. Walker took longer than expected and thus, I thought there was no significant activity.  Finally, in mid-May, Dr. Walker said the lump is indeed active and is “probably” cancer.  This was not what we wanted to hear.  So, his office set things in motion for me to go to Emory.  The challenges of Tricare caused a delay until 12 June.

On 12 June, I met with Dr. J.Trad Wadsworth at Emory’s ENT Cancer Clinic.  He performed an in office visual inspection of my throat (pretty cool to watch on the monitors in the room.  I commented that it was pretty cool and he said “Don’t talk, just breathe!”)  He noted some asymmetry in the base of the tongue and he said we needed to perform biopsies. 

On June 14, I drove to Atlanta for pre-op procedures to ensure I was healthy enough for out-patient surgical procedures the following Monday.  Muggy and I spent the night of June 16^th in Atlanta and arrived at Emory the following morning at 0500.  I was prepped for surgery.  It was amazing how friendly and efficient all the staff was.

The surgery involved biopsies of three areas:  the back of the tongue, the larynx and the upper esophagus.  Dr. W. had said the procedures would take about ten minutes.  Muggy had to wait almost 2 ½ hours as the initial biopsies showed no cancer, so Dr. W. performed two FNAs.  I came to about 1230 that day and was soon released.  Muggy and I spent at Dobbins.  My throat was sore for about a week.

Dr. W. shared with Muggy that there was, thus far, no indication of cancer, however he wanted to continue looking and he suspected the cancer may be “hiding” in the tonsils.  He proposed the next step to be an excisional biopsy to remove the lump and then conduct pathology.  If cancer cells were found, he would immediately proceed to a tonsillectomy.  He said we would have a phone conversation on Thursday to discuss results and options.

            Somewhere in here I spoke with son Luke and he suggested that I change Charmin’s name to Harry.  So, some folks know it as Charmin and some know it as Harry.

            Next time I’ll bring you up to date on the events of July 29 and the time since. 

            Thanks for reading!!