Hello Deitra and welcome to OCF. Im so glad you have found this site to help you and your family get thru this. Im sure you all are terrified of what is coming up. Its not an easy road but in a few months you will be cancer free. Im a single mother and my children were 17 and 15 when I was first diagnosed. While they werent babies, they still needed me. Im glad you have a child who is older and also a husband to be your caregiver.
My advice would be to eat everything you crave right now. Do not worry about weight gain or calories. In fact calories are now your best friend with trying to get as many as you can daily. Once treatment starts, you should get minimum 2500 daily with at least 48oz water. So for right now, concentrate on eating everything you every dreamed of and then have seconds
Your taste and saliva function will change while going thru radiation and things wont taste good and will be hard to eat.
Start lining up helpers too. Anyone who approaches you and offers help write their name and number down in a book and tell them they can help later while you are being treated. Even if its to drive you one day for treatment or pick up a pizza for the kids, its a big help. After a couple weeks you may not be able to drive yourself. Im hoping you are being treated at a cancer center. This way all the docs get together and discuss your treatment and progress. Everyone is on the same page and is more familiar with your type of cancer than a small facility.
There is so much info on the forum and also on the main pages. Make use of a search function in both places. Also please add a signature when you have time. It helps us to get to know you more quickly. Under the My Stuff tab its the profile section. All the way on the bottom, type in the white box what you would like your signature to be. It doesnt have to be anything technical, it can be anything you want that you feel is relevant.
A port to give you chemo and a feeding tube may be things you will get. Have your doctors discussed this with you?
Also here is a couple links that all patients can use. One is a booklet that was made by OCF members and the other is a list of easy foods for later if you have trouble eating. Please feel free to post questions here. There are alot of members who are able to give yo a wide variety of answers depending upon their experiences. Everyone here is slightly different with their cancer location, treatments, side effects and after effects. Best of luck with your upcoming treatments.
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/board_images/GTI_draft.pdfhttp://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=94621#Post94621
