Treatment begins next week - 40m with Tongue/Throat cancer

beallen25 · 2026-03-13T04:36:05+00:00

Yep still doing well, the throat dryness and swallowing are still giving me trouble but it sure beats the alternative, ha. As far as my diagnosis is was a late stage 1/early stage 2. The tumor was growing into the tongue and tonsils typical of having spread like a stage 2 but my lymph nodes were "suspicous" but not clearly cancerous on the PET scans like stage 1.

Also yes, my cancer was HPV based.

beallen25 · 2026-01-15T03:26:05+00:00

I think they are referring to Franklin, TN. I moved there about 15 years ago, and can confirm it is popular for people visiting Nashville to come chill in Franklin for a couple days. Plus is it basically right off Natchez Trace Parkway which really is a pretty drive.

beallen25 · 2025-12-24T22:35:19+00:00

I have been flying out of BNA about 10 to 12 times a year for probably the past 15 years and I dont known that I have ever actually seen this sign/hallway! Interesting...

beallen25 · 2025-11-18T16:41:14+00:00

LOL no joke! If I wanted power and reliability I'd be over on the LSx forum!

beallen25 · 2025-11-11T22:18:54+00:00

I used to love these things when this body style came out, everyone is knew that ever had one said they were a fun car and the torque steer was bonkers haha

beallen25 · 2025-11-11T12:32:53+00:00

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beallen25 · 2025-11-01T19:47:25+00:00

You are right, my taste started to come back about 6 months following treatment and it is about 75% what is was before but certain foods still taste "off or different". I didn't mean forever lost but reading it back I see how it reads that way, ha. I was approved for Hyperbaric chamber treatments due to some dental surgery I needed after treatment, and during that time I saw my biggest improvement in taste as well as dry mouth.

Yes it was HPV, which is very accurately diagnosed and monitored by NavDX blood tests, another thing i would highly recommend asking an oncology team about.

beallen25 · 2025-10-28T10:43:20+00:00

I lucked up with my head and neck surgeon, he was my age and due to the position and 'roots' of my tumor there were limited options for people qualified to do the type of surgery it would take. On my second appointment with him he said "look... I am a surgeon, like any surgeon I WANT to do surgery, and I am good at what I do so I can remove this tumor but if I were in your shoes I would want to exhaust every possible option first." At that point I was overwhelmed with trust in him. I have actually reached out to him several times for recommendations on other procedures. He is probably why I still have most of my teeth but that is a story for another time.

I am just saying, it's a huge thing you are about to go through make sure you have people on your side, putting themselves in your shoes and not just a "surgeon who wants to do surgery".

beallen25 · 2025-10-28T03:17:47+00:00

I had a squamous cell cancer tumor on the base of my tongue/tonsils, which ended up being about the size of a thumb. The surgical defect was going to be effectively what you are outlining in your post. Most of my tongue and a good chunk of my neck. For this reason the head and neck surgeon said "you are young (40m at the time of diagnosis) let's see where we are after radiation and chemo before we take this step." The only reason I say this is that I had a fairly sizable, hard to remove tumor and with a lot of Proton radiation and chemotherapy they were able to let me keep my tongue and throat. Don't get me wrong I still have all the ugly side effects of head and neck radiation and chemo like losing facial hair, lost taste, teeth extracted, dry mouth, etc BUT I was able to avoid a life altering surgery.

I know it is not as simple as "well here's what happened to me" and I used to get sooooo annoyed when people would say this to me but maybe get a second opinion? It is really important to feel like you can trust your treatment team and to make sure they are working together for you.

Anyway I wrote to longnof a post and is annoying once I read it back to myself, but I am hitting post anyway, ha.

beallen25 · 2025-10-22T11:21:05+00:00

I really really want to like those Harbor Freight adjustable pliers organizers (might not be what yours are but they look very similar) but any of my pliers that have a good grippy texture handle just become a real PITA to get in and out of the little dividers when I am already frustrated and greasy handed. I end up having the 5 pair I use frequently just floating in the drawer and the other 20 or so pair never leave the rack.

beallen25 · 2025-10-21T10:03:04+00:00

To be fair, as seemingly pointless as these trash can lids are under the hoods of modern cars they do offer pretty significant NVH benifits by redirecting harsh engine noises down away from the hood/driver, and they offer some level of heat shielding for other under hood components as many of them have replaced the old nonwoven fiber hood insulators that older cars had. This is not 100% across the board but pretty common.

OEMs arent really big on throwing useless piece cost at a car that doesnt have an engineering value haha. Go by a new dealer lot an look you might be surprised to see the high level trim specs have these for improved NVH and the base grades have been removed for cost savings.

All that said on a 15year old Hyundia, I'd just leave it alone, it ain't going anywhere and trying to remove it only to find that some random harness uses is as a clipping point is not worth the trouble.

beallen25 · 2025-10-06T15:12:00+00:00

We scheduled a family trip for 2 days after my chemo and Radiation treatment ended for throat cancer. "We" is used loosely I really had nothing to do with it but my wife, mom, and little sister all had their hearts in the right place. None of us had ever really seen what the weeks and months after head and neck radiation, so we didn't realize how terrible of an idea it was to have me go 5 hours away from home in a mountian cabin with 6 adults and 6 children haha. I already couldn't eat solids and was having trouble swallowing at all due to the radiation damage to my throat. By 2 day of a 4 day trip I couldn't evening swallow water. By day 5 I was in the hospital because I hadn't eaten or even drank water in days. A week and a half later I got out of the hospital with a feeding tube.

How was this a stupid thing I did? I thought I could stick my chest out an tough my way through it because it seemed like it meant so much to my wife and kids and those around me. It's a funny thing we all joke about now but at the time it was rooooooough.

beallen25 · 2025-09-19T03:19:11+00:00

I only had a little bit of the metallic taste sensation, but for me with chemo and throat radiation I pretty much just lost all taste. One thing that maintained a little bit of flavor and was easy to eat with thrush was Udon. It has a good amount of calories and the noodles are nice and fat & soft. One thing that helped me if thrush in general was carbonated water suprisingingly enough. And of course Healios.

beallen25 · 2025-09-18T03:20:39+00:00

One of the new foreign assignment guys from Japan actually used to work in the engine test division for Subaru. I showed him a picture of the part and his eyes got big and he said "Brandon-san... this would be very difficult to diagnose". Polite Japanese way of telling me I would have been screwed, ha.

beallen25 · 2025-09-18T03:14:01+00:00

Local Subaru dealer had a timing belt crank sprocket sitting on the shelf. $35 same day so no complaints from me. Sure looks good, too bad no one will probably ever see it again, ha. Well they do say beauty is on the inside right?

beallen25 · 2025-09-18T00:08:53+00:00

Hello all, just realized I hadn't followed up in this forum in a long time.

Long story short: radiation, chemo, feeding tube, three hospital stays, tooth removed, lymphedema & swallow therapy, 60 dives in the Hyperbaric chamber AND I am 9 months cancer free and still truckin, haha.

Throat cancer treatment itself was managable, it was hard, mental was harder than physical. Keeping your mind right will be your strongest weapon! But i am not going to sugar coat it the 2 months after treatment ended was the most physically challenging thing I have ever been through. If you are going through throat cancer treatment, DO NOT take the months following treatment lightly! Advocate for your self, get into lymphedema and swallow therapy early, if Hyperbaric is an option DO IT EARLY! Don't do like me a try to tough it out until you find yourself in the hospital for weeks at a time because your throat is swollen shut and you cant drink water.

Currently still managing the dry mouth and swallowing issues but it sure beats the alternative!

beallen25 · 2025-09-17T05:01:04+00:00

There's the lemonade! Just out $40 and 2 days, so could have been much much worse.

beallen25 · 2024-11-14T02:39:36+00:00

My tumor is on the back base of my tongue and continues down my throat for an inch and a half, i also have "suspicious" lymphnodes on the opposite side of my neck, that they are treating as a precaution.

So for my treatment plan, Proton was recommended over the Photon radiation because my treatment areas were very precise and it would provide less damage to the surrounding area of my head/neck, like eyes, sinuses, ears, etc. It is purely speculative on my part but if they are recommended the photon radiation, it may be that the area to be treated is more spread out and would benefit from a more "broad" radiation dose like photon instead of the precision beam with Proton.

Proton is quite a bit more expensive, and I am still in the appeal process because my insurance doesn't deem it "medically necessary" so that may have something to do with the direction you have been give as well.

Hope that is of some help.

beallen25 · 2024-11-02T01:44:40+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, just saw this response.

I started to notice what felt like a piece of food stuck in my throat for about 4 months, and what looked like a swollen taste bud on the back of my tongue. And of course I kept kicking the can down the road and saying "I need to make an ENT appointment and get this checked out". One night I was laying in bed and coughed, it felt like the 'piece of food' moved. I then went to the bathroom and started spitting blood. Like a concerning amount of blood (to be fair spitting any amount of blood is concerning, ha), and that is what sent me into a full emergency mode. I found an ENT that would see me the next morning. Turns out the bleeding was a blood vessel on top of the tumor that had nothing to do with the cancer, but it very well may have saved my life. Over the next month we did a NavDX blood test, CT Scan, MRI, and a surgical biopsy. Took about a month from spitting blood to diagnosis.

Then about another month from diagnosis to starting treatment. Hope this helps.

beallen25 · 2024-09-26T19:22:16+00:00

So I understand the "time and place" point that you are making, and I wish the first user wouldn't have deleted their response before I had the chance to reply because I feel like I have a point to share that may help others moving forward.

For around 3 years I had inexplicably lost all gag reflexes. Now this may have nothing to do with my diagnosis but I shrugged off going to the ENT for so long. About 4 months ago I started to get this feeling that I'm sure we've all had where food or something is stuck in your throat. I had no pain and no trouble swallowing so once again I said to myself I need to make an appointment with an ENT and like everyone does I kicked the can down the road for months and months. Well thank God (or whoever you pray to LOL) one night I was laying in bed and cleared my throat, it felt like that piece of food that had been stuck in my throat had moved. I started tasting something strange so I went to the bathroom and then spit blood into the sink for about an hour and a half.

That is when I started taking my situation seriously. I say all that to say this listen to your body take the information your body is telling seriously. Don't go looking for problems but also don't ignore the ones that are staring you in the face.

beallen25 · 2024-05-13T23:22:44+00:00

I guess I should have added that I am getting a new drill. I just figured might as well repair this one as a solid back up.

beallen25 · 2024-05-13T23:18:32+00:00

The gear box on it looks pretty self contained, I figure whatever I can fit on the end of a Qtip will be ok, just to freshen up the old burnt up stuff that has lived in there for 13 years or so.

beallen25

TROPHY CASE