[Daddisgrl]

I'm so sorry to those that knew him. I just spent some time trying to read about him. He has a few posts at places but did not really talk about his cancer except to say he found something in his neck. From things he was saying; I wasn't sure if he had head & neck or brain cancer. It took me a while to get the answer

As others may have not known John and I have started our trip from Florida down to the Caribbean and crossed the Panama Canal last year. Our goal was to sail to Hawaii on the trade winds and make our way down to Northern California. Unfortunately, John got sick on our attempt to cross the pacific and had to fly back to USA for medical emergency. Back in States, he had been diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck. It is called small cell carcinoma, unfortunately he never even smoke at all to have a cancer of the neck.

Normally; head & neck cancer is squamous cell carcinoma; think Michael Douglas. My hub was diagnosed as stage 4 a few years ago. These days; its from HPV & not smoking. What he had was a type of lung cancer & it sounds like it spread. What I'm reading is there is no "cure". Lung cancers are very under-funded. If anyone wants to do something for him in his memory; making a donation to one of the lung cancer charities in his name could help fund better understanding of it.

If anyone notices a sore throat or a neck node that swells & does not seem to go away; find the best University cancer center you can get to & see the head & neck department. The worst part of these cancers are that it takes so long to diagnose. It took over a month for my hub to be diagnosed locally; part of the problem is that they have to send biopsies out. Our ENT knew my hubs node was cancer but the 1st needle biopsy showed nothing. The 2nd was positive. From there we went to an ENT at a large University hospital where this ENT knew what was wrong because he sees so much of it every day. Our local ENT while I'm thankful for him; wanted to explore which would have set him back at least a month if not more due to sending a biopsy out. The larger center has a pathology lab right there & there are no unneeded surgeries.

If you think you may have head & neck cancer; which is on the rise; please go to one of the cancer boards to get help; they can point you in the direction you need to go in. If anyone needs information; PM me.

I'm sorry for your loss. He looked like a wonderful guy. I respect that he chose to live the life he had left. I lost my beloved dad to terminal cancer where he did a clinical trial & while he was able to "live" 8 months; he was not in good shape & was admitted a total of over 2 months; which was how long he'd live without treatment. Another family member passed from brain cancer without treatment & was able to have a decent quality of life.



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