"My brother was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma in 2012. He had a cold sore-like thing on his bottom lip for years that did not seem to grow at all. I should mention my brother was red-headed and very fair skinned. He also worked outside his entire adult life. He finally decided to have it looked at. The doctor did surgery, cutting the spot off of his lip as well as a spot on his ear. No radiation or chemo was done at the time because the doctor was "sure" she got it all.
Six months later a lump developed on his chin. After another surgery the doctor decided radiation and chemo would be done. While on radiation AND massive doses of chemo, the cancer spread to his lymph nodes and lungs. At that time he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He still continued to do chemo hoping it would at least slow the growth of the cancer down since he was tolerating it pretty well. He was told his cancer went "radical" after surgery, turning into something horrific and uncontrollable. He was placed on a feeding tube and all his teeth pulled.
THEN......it began spreading to his jaw and facial areas. And not just lumps, but huge gaping sores. All of this while on chemo. So he decided enough was enough and quit everything. It got to the point where the bone was exposed on his jaw and a hole opened up in his throat, resembling a tracheotomy. He died June 15, 2016 at the age of 53.
I am just now mentally able to post these pictures. I made my sister-in-law send them to me so I could see how he was doing. He went from 180 pounds to 100 pounds in about a year. Hard to see him struggle with just day to day things.
"
Slavshit
Sandshit
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What saddens me the most is he looks like in the peak of his life. I'm sorry if that's insensitive but He's a real badass. I don't know many men that can take that level of punishment and push on. I'm just sad he didn't get the good ending i was hoping for when reading.
I'm sorry about your brother. You are a strong person for facing the loss but also using it to teach others. You both are extremely good men and it shows.
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He was a badass. But he was a caring family member. He was a great dad, uncle, everything. (Also, the poster isn’t family, my mom posted this on another website, it just got reposted here)
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