Update: Dennis Vangel September 26, 2024

Hi everyone,

It has been wonderful to hear from all of you during a very crazy last few weeks. Your positive thoughts, prayers, wishes, and generosity have helped us in many ways to get to where we are today.

Earlier this week Dennis completed the last of his planned 35 radiation treatments. It was seven weeks of daily treatments Monday through Friday commuting 60 to 90 minutes each way from Hingham to Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, as well as weekly IV infusions of Cetuximab (also known as Erbitux) at DFCI. He amazed us and the medical team by doing so. It was a great day and we will take what we can get.

The staff at DFCI have been wonderful, caring, compassionate, professional, responsive, and nice which has made this very difficult process a lot more bearable.? Besides Dennis' sheer determination to complete the radiations, the staff deserves a lot of credit getting him to the finish line of those treatments.

It was not an easy accomplishment for Dennis to complete this leg of his cancer treatment journey. Early on he had severe side effects from both the Cetuximab (rash) and radiation therapy (skin burns and mucositus), and they only got worse as the weeks went by. He showed/shows great strength soldiering through the pain. We were told the?impact would be cumulative and it was/is.??

The mucositis has gotten increasingly worse as the inflammation of his tongue, mouth and neck have increased. His mouth sores are almost intolerable without significant pain management. The thickening phlegm caused by the drying up of the salivary glands by the radiation has increasingly gotten worse as the treatments accumulated. Vomiting has occurred daily for the past few weeks brought on from gagging on the phlegm. He now has severe radiation burns on the skin of his face, neck, jaws, shoulders, upper back and upper chest. We apply dressings to it usually?twice a day to promote healing and reduce the pain.?

Dennis receives all nutrition, meds, and liquids through his external stomach feeding tube, and will continue to do so for probably the next one?to two months, as his internal sores slowly heal. Because he really can't drink fluids by mouth we have him scheduled for IV hydration infusions twice a week at DFCI moving?forward. The doctors hope most of the inflammation will be gone by Christmas. Based on how quickly the inflammation recedes will determine when new scans will be done to see if the tumors have all been removed.

This next phase? (about 3 months) is about Dennis' slow but hopefully steady recovery to how things used to be, healing from the after effects of the cancer-killing treatments, getting healthy enough for new scans to be done, and very anxiously wait?to learn if it worked or not. By the end of December we should have a much clearer idea of the path forward based on what the oncology team advises?us. Because at this point no one knows.?

So, please keep those great prayers, thoughts, cards, DoorDash gift?cards (please send to my wife Beth at [email protected]), and meals/meal trains coming. They have been greatly appreciated. Dennis has already said he can't wait to get back to eating solid foods and drinking by mouth again! He loves ordering on DoorDash and has been watching the?Food Channel non-stop!

Thank you, everyone. Please continue to think of us over the next three months.