Thanks for doing what you do, Myrna and "Giving Back".:thumb:
I am an 8 1/2 year survivor of oral cancer.
I never smoked and I had squamous cell carcinoma, base of the tongue, tonsil area in 2006.
I had surgery down my throat, 33 radiation treatments, 5 days a week for 6 1/2 weeks, to my throat and neck.
I had simultaneous 6 1/2 weeks of chemo.
I was on a feeding tube for 3 months at that time because of the burns and side effects of radiation.
No sense of taste, no saliva production, and I was on Morphine the last week of treatment because of the burns.
I worked every day during treatment at the framing and design company where I was employed at that time.
I was the only framer and I worked there for 14 years until the owner retired in 2008.
She was very supportive and we are still great friends today.
I would leave work at about noon every day to get the treatments and at about the third or fourth week, I would come back to work and go upstairs to the conference area and just lie on the floor for about 20 minutes to get my head together.
One day I came back after radiation and my boss and her husband, who is a doctor, had brought down 2 leather chairs from her office and placed them downstairs, nose to nose, so that I could flop down on them like a couch for a bit.
I will never forget this.
I am now an 8 1/2 year survivor of a cancer where only about 50% live to 5 years after treatment.
There are still after effects even today, mainly from the radiation to the throat and neck.
It can affect, eating, taste, swallowing and speech.
I am very lucky.
You can look at me or talk with me and not tell that any of this happened.
Some have had to have vocal cords removed and we have one man in our support group who lost his nose and one eye.
He is a pastry chef and baker but he can't smell or taste at this time.
He bakes delicious pastries and brings them to the meetings.
He has an artificial eye and nose and at first glance you don't notice this.
I am a vetted national support volunteer with SPOHNC (Support for People with Oral and Head and Neck Cancer).
I am also a member of the local group and we meet on the third Thursday of every month.
We try to help newly diagnosed people who are going thru the same tough treatments that we went thru and we try to give a positive outlook and help with what we have learned.
Some of these folks think "Am I the only one who is going thru this?".
50,000 people are diagnosed each year in the U.S.
One person dies every hour of the day, every day of the year from it.
Some of us are now involved with an amazing photographer in Scottsdale who has recruited volunteers to have our pictures taken with and without our radiation masks.
I kept my mask.
The masks were made so that when you get radiation treatments, the mask is fitted over your face and your head is bolted down to the table to hold you motionless for exact targeting.
Then all of the techs leave the room and go into their control room and they hit you with the radiation program.
The photographer wants to photograph about 30 of us with and without our masks.
The project is called "Masks of Survival".
The photos will be framed and then there will be a gallery showing a few months from now in Scottsdale.
The photographer is actually a famous western photographer.
He usually photographs cowboys and western scenes in black and white.
The photos are all in black and white and are very dramatic and a few of the early ones are up on the photographer's Facebook page.
He put a few up just to get reaction. This is a non-profit project.
Thanks again to all who "Give Back".:thumb:
