Note: This overview of my ongoing battle with cancer was written by request of the Support for People with Oral and Head and Neck Cancer organization, whose nationally circulated publication serves thousands of otorhinolaryngology (ENT) patients and physicians. I share it today in hopes Arkansans who have and will contract such cancer will find it helpful.
When word got around that I had contracted squamous cell cancer in my neck, several well-meaning cancer survivors reached out and advised me to immediately head for MD Anderson in Houston, one of the nation s premier cancer treatment centers.
Chemotherapy for many Arkansans, including a number of close friends, has become a reality over the years. Little wonder, since it represents a primary and effective defense against cancer.
If living teaches us anything, it should be how unpredictable and fleeting it is. This fact is never clearer than when we reach our mid-70s when seemingly half the names and faces on the obituary pages hadn t made it this far.