Unlucky lottery winner. Spoiler MEC.

Hello Everyone,

As you might have guessed from my username, my name is Dan. I couldn’t think of anything clever at the time of creation so the generic, “Dan The Man”, username seemed appropriate. While I find myself be to a new member of the club that nobody wants to be a part of, but I’m glad to be here with you all. Here goes nothing! 

My story is relatively short and has happened in a very quick period of time. On October 30, 2020, I casually walked into my dentist’s office for routine cleaning. During the exam, my dentist performed a physical examination of my neck feeling for anything out of the ordinary. As you might have guessed, he found a “lump”; otherwise, if he had found nothing, you would not be reading this J. Specifically, the lump was located on the left side of my neck under my jaw. My dentist suggested I get the “lump” looked at, however, he felt that it was probably nothing. Heeding his advice, and with the loss of a very close friend to melanoma almost 364-days earlier, I scheduled an appointment with my PCP.

Roughly a week and a half later, I visited with the CNRP in my PCP’s office. He suggests that I might have a blocked salivary gland and recommends sucking on hard candies and chewing gum for a week or two. His hope was the blockage would release and the swollen gland (“lump”) would subside. He also sent me for bloodwork. Fast forward another week, admittedly after going through a bag of LifeSaver’s hard candies and a quarter bag of Jolly Ranchers, the lump did not subside. Since there was no change in the “lump”, the CNRP sent me for an ultrasound. Ultimately, the radiologist noted I had a heterogeneous nodule in the left submandibular region of my neck. He noted a CT with contrast should be performed.

In the middle of December, I have the CT and the radiologist confirms the “lump” is indeed a neoplasm. It is recommended that I see an ENT to have an FNA biopsy performed. December 23, 2020, my ENT reviews my case and performs the biopsy. During the examination, he automatically recommends surgical excision of the tumor regardless of the biopsy results. The surgery was scheduled for Jan 12, 2021. Happy New Year to me! The biopsy results came back before the new-year as undiagnosed. My ENT suggested performing the more extensive surgery: tumor and submandibular gland excision w/ a level 1B neck dissection. I agreed, it was the more cautious approach and gave the green light. 

January 12, 2021, Surgery day! The surgery was a success! While in the PACU, my ENT noted that what he removed did not look good and that my lymph nodes were swollen/enlarged. He also noted that the surgical biopsy results should be completed by my second postop visit on Jan 19, 2021. 

Result day! My doc noted that the incision site looks very good and is healing nicely (yay!!!). In the next breath, which I appreciated, he noted that my tumor was cancerous. He noted that I have T1 intermediate-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) /w a sclerosing variant. He also noted that my lymph nodes and margins clear of cancer! The MEC was localized to the tumor only! Honestly, it’s the second-best result that I could have received (best being a benign tumor, obviously). He mentioned the sclerosing variant is incredibly rare, ~30 reported MEC cases in the medical journals. He also explained that it is essentially scar tissue in the middle of the tumor and from what he can tell, it’s insignificant. Lastly, he noted that he will review my case w/ a tumor board to see if radiation is recommended. He feels that it will not be. The tumor board meets every Thursday. My ENT will be presenting my case later this week. I should know by Friday if I need radiation or not. 

I should also mention that I have become a total nerd about anything medically related to my body since the journey started, specifically with MEC. I’m currently trying to compile as much information as I can about the cancer.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday! I’ll provide an update later this week with the recommendation of the tumor board!

Thanks for reading!

- Dan