My husband is 75 and has had squamous cell carcinomas on his face, forehead and ears over many years. He has been treated by NHS doctors (after GP referral) and also by a private dermatologist, but never had any monitoring. Earlier this year the private consultant actually referred him to a plastic surgeon to look at his ear which was oozing from the earhole, and he then had surgery in July to remove half his outer ear, but there were some poorly differentiated areas and so scans were arranged. These showed he required a parotidectomy, neck dissection, removal of the rest of his ear and a cholesteatoma. The squamous cell carcinoma was a T3 and wrapped around the parotid gland which has been removed, there are clear margins but not as big as they could be in some areas. The lymph nodes are clear. He is now 4+ weeks post op and doing OK but still quite tired, and obviously has almost no hearing in the affected ear which hopefully can be addressed at some stage. For now we're waiting to see the Oncologist on Thursday to see if adjuvant radiotherapy will be needed.
So that's my/our story, which I have told to introduce myself to this really helpful helpful online community. Thanks
Hi Tavares and a very warm welcome to the Macmillan Community but sorry to hear about your husbands journey to date.
A cancer diagnosis in the family can be such a challenging and stressful time but getting support from others who are dealing with the ‘exact same' cancer type or support challenges will help you a lot……. I have a completely different type of cancer and treatment journey.
This New to Community area is like our reception desk where we look to direct you to the best part of the Community for you to get support. The Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) so can I recommend you look to join and post in our……
……. support group. This group is a safe place to talk to others who may have a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support from family members who are navigating the same support journey.
As for the practical and emotional challenges of supporting your husband and indeed yourself you may benefit from joining and posting in our……
……. support group where you will connect with a wide range of members navigating the exact same support challenges.
To connect in with a group click on the “Bold Italic Links” I have created above …… then once the group page opens click in the [Black - Click to Join - Banner] that appears at the bottom of the page and this will then confirm that you have joined the group.
When you are ready……. you can introduce yourself by putting up your very own post by clicking [+ Create new post] or [+] in the top right of the group page.
You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
It is an emotional time supporting family so you might find this Macmillan information your feelings when someone has cancer helpful as well as this link getting help with your emotions.
The Macmillan Support Line is open between 8am-8pm (timings may differ across services) 7 days a week on 0808 808 00 00…… this service provides cancer information, practical information, emotional support, benefits/financial guidance or just a listening ear.
Talking to people ‘face to face’ can be very helpful so do check to see if you have any Local Macmillan Support in your area, do also check for a local Maggie's Centre as these folks are amazing.
Do get back to me if you need further help navigating the community.
