I'm not a oncologist, but I think that is just standard throat cancer which are all pretty similar. By the time it was diagnosed and treatment started, I don't think she had much of a chance. One of my doc friends said based on the size of the tumor (even though it had not yet spread), she had maybe 3 years. He also thought the ENT should have caught it a year before when he saw the swelling and irritation and my mom describing it felt like her swallowing was catching in her throat.

The entire thing was a disaster. My dad melted down (understandable given the amount of blood loss in the house and car) and I drove all night to get to the hospital. Kaiser had a balloon holding her throat together with a tube down her throat. She was somewhat regaining consciousness. The doctor on call said almost assuredly the tumor was back and perforated her throat and there was no way to operate — she would die on the operating table. So based on my mom's prior stated wishes, I had them remove her from life support. The autopsy showed no tumor. The radiation had fried it completely along with her throat.

It was a big wake up call for me about what it meant to be an advocate for your own health care and take as much control as your plan will allow. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of amazing doctors, but there are a lot of burned out, unmotivated, or otherwise incompetent doctors out there. My last family doctor wanted to talk sports or investments or discuss his plans to retire early and become a full time Uber driver. My physical amounted to him doing nothing (not listening to my chest, look in my ears, zip) and processing the online paperwork to verify to my work I had my annual physical. I moved on from that guy.