"Thank You For Saving My Life," From a Tonsil Cancer Survivor

Susan Bolinger

Susan Bolinger of Elverson, PA, had a nagging sore throat that wouldn’t go away. After a tonsillectomy revealed she had tonsil cancer, she had a tonsil dissection, and Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery (TORS), a revolutionary surgery for the head and neck developed by Drs. Bert O’Malley and Gregory Weinstein at Penn Medicine.

In this post, Susan writes about her diagnosis and treatment for tonsil cancer. 

For a year I had a nagging sore throat my regular doctors believed was something else. It wasn’t until I had a tonsillectomy that they discovered I had tonsil cancer, and needed more surgery.

Contrary to my fears (thank you, Google!) the throat dissection went smoothly. The surgeon removed 32 lymph nodes, and 2 of them had cancer.

Even after the surgery, the scar blended in nicely with my neck wrinkles!

Getting Out The Cancer

TORS is the world's first group of minimally-invasive robotic surgery techniques enabling surgeons to remove benign and malignant tumors of the mouth and throat. This revolutionary breakthrough results in shorter, virtually scarless head and neck surgery. Designed to avoid incisions for primary site resection, TORS is performed through the patient's mouth and provides unprecedented access to the small and often difficult-to-reach areas of the mouth and throat.

I was scheduled to have TORS 3 weeks later to remove the tumor. I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am that we live close to Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, where I had access to first-class care by the surgeons who developed the TORS procedure.

You see, Drs. O’Malley and Weinstein developed and perfected TORS. I mean, can you think of anyone better to perform TORS than the team that actually developed it?

The team at Penn was amazing, and did so much to relieve my fears and stress. I never felt hurried, and even though I baked an apple pie for my TORS team the day of the surgery, I am confident I would have gotten the same fabulous treatment without baked goods!

In all seriousness though, if I didn't have TORS, the surgery would have involved surgically breaking my jaw and multiple incisions to get to where they needed to be to remove the tumor. Instead, the entire procedure was performed through my mouth with no further cuts to the outside of my neck.

No more scars to add to my neck wrinkles!

The only tough part about the surgery was enduring the breathing tube in for a few days following surgery. Also, I had a nostrogastic feeding tube (a tube that went up one of my nostrils) which was thankfully removed in about ten days.

Next Up: Radiation for Tonsil Cancer

My team recommended I have radiation after surgery to kill any nasty remaining cancer cells that could be floating around in my throat area.

Kill cancer cells? I was happy to oblige!

Every day for 6 weeks we headed to Penn to have radiation treatment. Again, the clinical staff and team were fantastic. They entertained my sense of humor, and somehow made the time fly.

Radiation treatment itself was no walk in the park. I had a sore throat, lost my appetite, and was so tired I took up permanent residence on our couch. But if that’s what it took to kill those cancer cells, then that’s what I was going to do.

I finished my radiation treatment on Christmas Eve, 2012. As I rang the bell, I felt relief and joy. Some of that joy was from weight loss, but nonetheless, I was happy to be done with treatment knowing I got the best care available at Penn Medicine.

Susan Today

Today, I am cancer-free. Things are going well, and I feel better and stronger every day.

And, I have Penn Medicine and Drs. O’Malley and Weinstein to thank for that.

Read more about Susan’s cancer fight, and get a dose of her humor on her blog, How the Heck Am I?

Learn more about TORS at Penn

Watch this video about TORS featuring interviews with Drs. O'Malley and Weinstein.