Hello Paul - Welcome to the family. You just picked up a bunch of new brothers and sisters who share something big in common with you. You also found perhaps the best place on the planet for helping you get through what is coming down the road. Make no mistake about it, what is coming is big, and sometimes it can be kinda scary, but it is entirely doable. Lot's of others have already been through it and came out the other end of the tunnel just fine. I'm one of them.

If it weren't for our age difference, you 47, me 61 (at time of diagnosis) our stories are virtually the same. I didn't have any lymph node involvement, but everything else about your throat (swelling, etc) is pretty much a carbon copy of mine.

You mentioned you had extra pounds right now; so did I. Many members have lots of problems eating during treatment. I had a few problems but was always able to swallow without pain. Still I lost 32 pounds over the 7 weeks of radiation treatment and another 10 after treatment ended. My weight is stable right now (about 6 months post treatment). I went into so much detail because proper nourishment and hydration are really big things during treatment, just like Christine told you above.

She told you what to do, I will tell you why you do it. Cancer and it's treatment are both hyper-metabolic processes. They both love calories. They get their nourishment before your body gets any. The old saying that a pregnant woman is eating for two, well you're eating for three. Long story short you gotta eat a lot, and that is often hard to do if your throat hurts when you swallow. There were days when I lost a whole pound each day. (Hint: if you don't already have a decent bathroom scale, go get one. My Health-o-Meter digital was less than $30 at Walmart). I'm not pushing their brand, you just don't need to spend a lot on one. Put a weight log on the bathroom door and write down your weight every day.

During treatment your nurses will be weighing you every week and if you lose too much weight in a week you will get fussed at a little. My nurse told me that once you lose 10% of your body weight you become a candidate for a PEG tube. Your goal is to avoid the PEG tube. I reached 10% weight loss on the last day of treatment, so I avoided the tube. Still my nutritionist was quite unhappy that I just kept losing weight. She even said that I showed no remorse for continuing to lose weight. She was right, I loved the new thinner look (you will too), you just can't endanger your health getting it. Do this nutrition thing wrong, lose too much weight and you end up in the hospital on IV feeding; worst thing of all your treatment stops while you're in the hospital, and that just lets cancer start winning the battle again. So, pay attention to your nutrition. I probably came too close to the line, and like I said I didn't have any eating or swallowing problems.

I've rambled on long enough. Since we're similar cases, if you want to follow along with what I went through my introduce yourself threat is titled Old B-52 Bombardier. Last time I looked it was on about page 17 of this forum. There is also an in treatment thread and now I post in the after treatment forum.

Good luck with this, you will do just fine. You can always PM me with specific questions.

take care
Tony