What an amazing spirit comes through in these posts. You are inspiring.

My mother was diagnosed with oral cancer,left side,with two lymph nodes involved.It has spread "superficially"to the mandible, in April 2004. She never smoked. She had two extractions and started 4 weeks of radiation May 31st.

The rub is, she is bearing down on her 92nd birthday. She keeps reminding me she beat cancer twice before ( breast cancerin her late forties and again at 81) and will again. Each time it has been a primary. She's pretty amzaing but she started radiation at 95 pounds fully dressed (She has shrunk over the years from 5'2" to 4'10"). I got her up to 99 pounds before radiation started by stuffing her with whipping cream and avocado mushed with olive oil( we made
jokes about me being the witch in the Gingerbread House) but now,with two weeks still to go, she can barely get custard down. I have read all sorts of posts in which people refer to losing 40 or 50 pounds. Does anyone know of people who started off rake thin, and what happens to them? Does anyone here have a relative of that age and frailty who has survived?Oh, I should have told you that when she was diagnosed, everyone told me the treatment would be palliative only. Everyone, that is, except the radiation oncologist, who said he thought he had a 60% chance of getting rid of it forever.

Luckily, my mother has not had surgery, so I am hoping that makes a difference.

I am also concerned to read here about sugar possibly feeding cancers, since I fed her so much sweet stuff to plump her up

Thanks,
"Worried daughter"