Sometime in 2001, I had a suspicious growth removed from the temple area of my head.  It turned out to be squamous cell cancer.  However, the doctor assured me that he had gotten it all.  At a routine physical on May 2, 2002, I asked the doctor about a small bump on my cheek.  He had no idea what it was.  By the middle of July it had become more prominent, so I scheduled an appointment with a specialist.

The specialist informed me that this was my parotid gland.  85% of parotid tumors are benign.  However, I did not mention anything about the previous skin cancer.  This was on July 17, 2002.  At that time surgery was scheduled to remove the parotid gland on August 6, 2002.  A week later I thought the growth was larger, so returned to the surgeon's office and at that time told him of the previous cancer.  He immediately seemed concerned and did a biopsy of the tumor.  Next afternoon, Thursday July 25th, he gave me the bad news.  It was cancer. He then moved the surgery to Monday July 29th and the surgery would now be a parotidectomy and a radial neck dissection. 

The surgery lasted 6 1/2 hours.

On August 20th I had an appointment to begin the process of radiation therapy.  This appointment was followed by another on Friday, August 23rd.  Radiation treatment began on August 26th and continued with treatment every week day for 6 1/2 weeks.  The radiation treatments drain every ounce of energy from your body.  And to go each day and see all the other patients who for the most part had it worse than me was very humbling.

Now more than seven months after surgery and five months after completing radiation treatments, I am CANCER FREE!  My ear, neck, and right shoulder are still hurting but not as bad.  Because the neck muscle that was removed controls the right shoulder, I am still doing physical therapy to be able to move it properly.

But life is good and I am back to pretty much normal and riding my Harley every day.

Use sunscreen and if you have any suspicious growths, GO TO A SPECIALIST right away!

Some pictures below.  My website. Larry's website

Taken on Aug 2nd....after surgery on July 29, 2002.

Scar at 9/28/02.....after 24 Radiation treatments....neck is very swollen. Looks better than above.

Treatment area on 10/9/02 after completion of 6 1/2 weeks of radiation.

Below are shots of "The Mask".........the Mask is so tight you can't lick your lips.

Update on 11/30/09

I am happy to report that 7 years and 4 months I am still cancer free.  Still have shoulder and neck pain and still can't lift my right arm past the 3 o'clock position.  But life is good.

Heart problems:

In the spring of 2006 I began having worse pains in my right shoulder.  Had EKG and doctor said heart was fine.  Went to an orthopedic specialist who proscribed physical therapy.  After 4 weeks of physical therapy with no improvement, I called and scheduled heart tests.  These tests showed blockage.  Got the results on Friday at 4:30 PM, had angioplasty on Monday morning (Aug. 14, 2006).  Needed 2 stents as the blockage of the artery was 98%.  Lucky I didn't die!  Heart is doing well now with latest test showing strong heart and no blockages.