Few parents of teenage boys can claim what Stephanie Edmondson says about her 16-year-old: He’s never given her any trouble, not a bit.
“He’s a good kid. He doesn’t smoke or drink. He doesn’t skip school. He has good grades,” the Everett mother said. “He doesn’t even have any piercings or freaky hair.”
With every reason to be proud, Edmondson now faces a world of worries.
Mark Edmondson, an Everett High School junior, was diagnosed in October with mouth cancer. On Nov. 7, the oral squamous cell carcinoma was removed at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center, where Mark spent two weeks.
The extensive operation involved two surgeons.
As Mark’s mother described it, Dr. David Moore, a head and neck surgeon at Swedish, “went in and got the cancer out.”
Dr. Kevin Beshlian, a plastic surgeon with Virginia Mason Hospital and Medical Center, then “put Mark’s face back together.”
Incisions went through his lip and chin, up behind his ear and down his neck and shoulder. He lost teeth, part of his tongue, and bone from his jaw.
To rebuild the inside of his mouth, skin and a main artery were taken from inside one wrist. And to repair the wrist, tissue was taken from his thigh.
Home now, Mark lives in north Everett with his mother and seventh-grade brother, John. To care for Mark as he recovers, Stephanie Edmondson, who is divorced, has taken time off her job at the Fred Meyer store in Lynnwood.
This week, they’ll be back in Seattle to learn what comes next.
They’ll learn results of tests on Mark’s lymph nodes and bone, and whether he’ll need radiation treatment alone, or radiation and chemotherapy.
Meanwhile, friends are planning a fundraiser at Everett High School to help the Edmondsons with staggering expenses. The silent auction starts at 6 p.m. Saturday in the high school gym.
“Of all kids, Mark has always had the most beautiful smile, and just this kind heart,” said Leska Ratliff, an organizer of the event. Ratliff’s son, David, was a classmate of Mark’s at Immaculate Conception-Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Everett.
The first indication something was wrong came disguised as a dental problem. “It started back where a wisdom tooth would come through. That’s what I thought it was,” Stephanie Edmondson said.
One weekend, it was swollen and hurt bad enough that Mark went to the emergency room at Providence Everett Medical Center. He was given antibiotics, and the following week he went to the dentist.
When one dentist advised a root canal, his mother took him to her dentist, Dr. Radu Wolf in Edmonds. After an exam, Wolf sent Mark’s tissue to the University of Washington Medical Center.
When those biopsy results came back, Stephanie Edmondson said the dentist asked to see her alone.
“I was sick,” she said. “When does a dentist ever want to see you alone?”
Wolf said Wednesday that the type of mouth cancer Mark had is extremely rare in someone so young.
“Unfortunately, oral cancer is so aggressive that the mortality rate is high if you don’t catch it small and right away. It is imperative for a dentist to do those exams,” Wolf said.
Most mouth cancers such as Mark’s are seen in smokers or users of chewing tobacco, the dentist said. Mark had “none of those things as precursors,” Wolf said. “When I first saw him, I didn’t think cancer was what it was. This is very, very rare.”
At home, Stephanie Edmondson is helping Mark heal and is trying to put some weight back on him.
“He went in the hospital at 150 pounds; he’s now about 134,” she said. A tracheotomy tube has been removed, and Mark can now eat eggs, oatmeal, soup and mashed potatoes.
He’d been taking advanced placement and honors classes, and he may have to repeat his junior year. They plan for tutoring.
They hope follow-up treatment can be done at Northwest Hospital &Medical Center in north Seattle, closer to home than Swedish.
Coping with each day, there’s still time to think of the future. “He wants to be a pharmacist,” Edmondson said. She’s thankful the cancer was found when it was. “It could have been too late,” she said.
And she appreciates all the help and prayers coming from school friends and people at the family’s church, Immaculate Conception in Everett.
“I feel those prayers gave Mark the extra strength to go through it,” she said.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
Cancer fundraiser
A silent-auction fundraiser to assist Mark Edmondson is set for 6 p.m. Saturday in the Everett High School gym.
The Everett High junior recently had surgery for mouth cancer.
Refreshments will be sold, and free babysitting will be available.
To donate items for auction, call Marci Jensen at 425-385-4414 or Leska Ratliff at 425-388-8956.
Donations to the Mark Edmondson Fund are also being accepted at all area KeyBank branches.
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