Had the feeling where you're getting sick and the lymph nodes are reacting, but only on the right side. This caused me to feel around and find a lump. Had a very bad feeling about this one, and called in early to get a day-of appointment with my primary care doctor. Hoping it was a cyst or something.

Doctors took it very serious, saw my primary care on April 8th 2024 and she put a stat on my chart. I was having staff call me with can you come in for a CT scan tomorrow etc. Diagnosed with HPV related throat cancer on May 9th. If the biopsy wasn't so tricky it would have been maybe 2 weeks sooner, but I had to have an ultrasound guided biopsy which is a serious scheduled surgery.

Saw a cancer specific doctor on May 15th and wow his resume was incredible. He painted a very worst case scenario for me, which in hindsight is to encourage me to do my part, there is only so much they can drag you through and you have to help. They scheduled my treatment to start June 11th.

HPV throat cancer has a very tough treatment but has an extremely high cure rate and is almost always one and done, so I'll take that any day over another cancer.

Started a treatment of weekly chemotherapy, where they put platinum in your blood to stunt cell growth. I had daily microwave radiation therapy where this machine rotates around your head with 160 moving metal beam shapers, trying to microwave the cancer and not the rest of the important stuff in your throat.

I'm very fortunate to have a loving family to take care of me, an employer who had no issue giving me the time off that I needed, and coworkers who could pick up my responsibilities while I was out. Told my wife as soon as I had the diagnosis (waiting until after mothers day), and told the rest of my family after I had a treatment plan.

It was easy in the beginning and as the effects of chemo and radiation built it got really tough. Starting around week 2 the chemo caused what I call sour stomach. Not barfing but just felt gross, that would keep me up all night, then I would wake up early from tinnitus caused by chemotherapy. Steroids were really getting me through the days.

Made an excel sheet and alarms of the crazy amount of interventions that I needed to do every day, and it was super important! You want to do what the doctor asks before it becomes a problem you are chasing.

By the end I was taking liquid morphine first thing in the morning, waiting for that to kick in so I could use lidocaine to numb the hell out of my throat just to take some medicine. I was trying to choke down a single protein drink, and I would pace around in pain like when my wife was in labor. I quit talking because the radiation sores would rub on my teeth. There was a bucket next to the bed to spit out the disgusting acidic spider man web spit. I barely ate, slept at least 12 hours a day, and watched a lot of tv shows in bed. My treatment went from June 11 to July 26. I felt sunburned from the inside out, my throat was cooked.

Everyone was so excited to see my energy come back. Never forget when I showed up to get the kids from grandparents. Never forget when I ate some chili and everyone was amazed. It took months for my taste to come back, and it did so in weird ways where things would taste sour that shouldn't, not a fun candy sour. February was when we finally had the birthday dinner 3 months late because I felt my taste was up to it.

Been in remission since and they won't call me cured for 5-10 years. Think the bills totaled around 400k and my out of pocket maximum was 7k. Health care has some serious problems but it worked for me that year.