Lots of questions and a few answers!

Hi everyone who has joined us so far! We cannot believe this journey started just two weeks ago...it feels like a lifetime. 
We know there are so many unanswered questions, and we hope this update will help answer a few of them. 
We are going to back up a little bit so we are all on the same page. 
Brian was not feeling great on Saturday, August 8th, not bad enough to keep him home from our date, but just...off. We thought it was just exhaustion from all he has been carrying for the last 2 years: church shepherding, preparing teachings for his small group, and sermons for Sunday mornings, leading (2) men's groups, coursework for his Master's degree, special CSAT classes, finals, state testing for his mental health counseling license, intern counseling with over 25 clients, helping me weekly with Table of Hope, being an awesome husband to me, a present Papa for his kids and a great PawPaw to his 8 grandbabies...but it was not.
He was feeling much worse on Sunday morning, August 9th. 
Because it was such short notice, he went ahead and preached the sermon he had prepared. He became very sick during the sermon and cut it short. I took him to Mercy ER immediately after because he started to have cloudy thinking and was becoming confused, with a high fever. (He has a history of Stroke and TIAs, so we don't mess with that!) 
They acted quickly at Mercy ER, took him back right away, and began running tests. He mentioned that he was having trouble urinating and was in pain. He also mentioned that he had a knot on his neck, but that it did NOT hurt. They ran blood cultures, urinary cultures, and, as a precaution, they did a CT scan. They determined quickly that he had a very bad UTI while we waited for the CT results. At this point, we assumed the confusion was from the UTI, and we were not at all expecting anything else to show up. Our oldest daughter, Heather, was there with me, and I had told her to go home as it seemed like everything was under control. Thankfully she is grown and does not always listen to her mama! So she stayed with me. He was on an IV antibiotic; they were going to admit him overnight for observation and to wait for the cultures to grow. 

Then the attending came in to give us the results...He started with, "The good news is...there is no growth on your brain; there is no new stroke activity, but I'm very sorry to tell you that you have a 3.5-centimeter malignant tumor in your neck, and you have cancer. 

I think our brains all simultaneously glitched, and we collectively thought we misheard him.

It turns out that the knot that he was unconcerned about was actually cancer. And the unrelated UTI is what got us there for such a quick diagnosis. There is no telling how long he would have let that knot go before getting it checked. 

He ended up being admitted for four days. In that time, his amazing ENT (Dr. Bear) was able to get a biopsy (In the middle of a code red weather storm that shut down the hospital! A story for another day!) A chest scan to check for other lymph nodes affected, a scope of his throat, and many other tests that may have taken weeks otherwise. He was released on 8/12 and still so sick from the UTI that we could not even think about what we had been told or focus on the cancer journey we had begun. He actually ended up back in the ER on Saturday, August 15th, for an emergency catheterization, which he had for another week. There is suspicion of prostate cancer also, but we (and his Dr.s) cannot move forward on that until he heals some more from the UTI trauma to his body. 

It has been a wild ride of Dr. visits, moving from one hospital to another, planning upcoming appointments, and setting things in place for what is coming. 
He was able to get into UC (HUGE PRAISE!) Dr Zender is our touchpoint right now.
What we know and what is coming up:
*He has stage 3 Oropharyngeal cancer
*He will require at least 8 weeks of radiation, with possible chemotherapy. We have been told by several oncologists that this is a very rough road no matter the path we take. He will need a feeding tube to help once his swallowing becomes too difficult.
*He will have a PET scan on Tuesday, 8/25 (to see how many lymph nodes are involved)
*He is taking his NCE (National Counselor Exam) licensing exam on Wednesday, 8/26. He has stepped away from his clients for the time being but hopes to go back as soon as he is strong enough next year. 
*He is having an exploratory surgery on 8/27 to see if TORS surgery (with a robot) is even an option for him.  This MAY make chemotherapy unnecessary. 
*We hope to have a clear plan by the end of the week. 

We are beyond grateful for the support we have been shown already. Words fail us, truly. 
We feel so loved and cared for, and are so thankful for your help and kind words. Your prayers mean more than anything; please continue to hold him in prayer for the coming days.

In gratitude, Jalal (and Brian)