 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 551 | Ellen,
As a patient, I went with "Hope for the Best/Prepare for the Worst." Treatment was a struggle but I never stopped walking or caring for my pets as usual, never needed to be hospitalized during treatment (other than the surgery part), and was able to at least mitigate the worst of the side effects. It can be done! And the best piece of advice I got was, "Do what the doctors tell you to do." So I kept walking, I made sure I got enough calories, I started taking painkillers before I really needed them, I made sure I reported anything weird that was happening and stayed ahead of the side effects as best I could. Some things can't be altered, like the horrid mucus and then the dry mouth, but much of it can be, like the nausea.
Taking each day as it comes is the approach that worked for me, for sure.
Stage IV SCC lt lateral tongue, surgery 5/19/08 (partial gloss/upper neck dissection left side/radial free flap reconstruction) IMRT w/weekly Cisplatin & Erbitux 6/30/08, PEG 1 6/12/08 - out 7/14 (in abdominal wall, not stomach), PEG 2 7/23/08 - out 11/20/08, Tx done 8/18/08
Second SCC tumor, Stage 1, rt mobile tongue, removed 10/18/2016, right neck dissection 12/9/2016
Third SCC tumor, diagnosed, 4/19/2108, rt submandibular mass, HPV-, IMRT w/ weekly Cisplatin, 5/9 - 6/25/2018, PEG 3 5/31/2018
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