OPERATION BILL

BILL LANGFIELD  - CANCER FIGHTER AND WINNER

WARNING THESE PHOTOS MAY UPSET SOME PEOPLE
(There is a reason I'm wearing the mask in the above picture)

Here there are some pictures of Bill Langfield post operation
Most were taken by him holding the camera at arms length

[This is a brief description of the operation, I don't know the technical terms]
[And I was mostly drugged out on morphine while in hospital]

The operation started a 6am and finished at 8pm Christmas Eve 2005
Performed by leading surgeon Dr Greg Morgan and Plastic Surgeon Dr Michael Veness

 Lower teeth removed, left lower jaw bone removed,
tongue surface replaced with graft from right wrist, wrist then stitched
and stapled with a thin slice graft from right leg thigh
Various other areas were 'cut' to remove hopefully all of the cancer
 Including cutting the jaw in half and spreading it open, for access to the mouth and throat
A tube was inserted into his neck/throat to breath through, because of the expected
swelling of the tongue and other areas - which did swell up - painfully

He was in Westmead Hospital NSW Australia  for 2 weeks
After that he returned home to a fully restored bedroom completed by his mother, Sandra

He then attended the hospital every weekday for 3 months for radio and chemo

Radio took 15 minutes a day and chemo took 6 hours a day
During this he had two more operations to remove upper teeth and feeding tube inserted

He was given the maximum the linier-accelerators could output
and the maximum poison of chemo of anyone before him - wow!

These hits put him close to death, but he was not frightened all that much.
"You don't give up when you know loved ones want you to pull through"

Westmead Hospital became his second home
He hated it and enjoyed it the same time - now that's weird
"The nurses were cool"

The doctors have to keep an 'eye' on his progress for the next five years
and he now only has to visit the hospital for a check-up every two weeks