Welcome to OCF! Im sorry its taken me a while to welcome you. I knew you were in great hands with Paul and the other members who have been helping you. Some of the more technical things that have been discussed, you should discuss with your fathers medical team. Since our members do not come from medical backgrounds anything said is never intended to replace the medical advice of a physician.

The 3 weeks until rads starts will go very quickly. There are lots of things that need to be done to prepare for rads. He should have a full blood panel done including thyroid and testosterone levels. Down the road most patients who have had radiation to the head and neck areas have issues with those things. Its important to get the numbers now, later when your father has issues with his thyroid and testosterone levels his doctor needs to know what is normal for your father.

Radiation treatments for OC patients has a major impact on the patients ability to eat. Patients sense of taste, ability to swallow, saliva and painful mouth sores (almost all patients who have rads will eventually get mouth sores) may be some of the issues patients go thru during rads and in their recovery phases. The side effects I mentioned are on a temporary basis but to the patient it seems to be forever! Im sure at this time after the surgery your father had he isnt able to eat as well as he normally would be. When going thru radiation and the recovery phase (after completing radiation treatments), most patients struggle to take in enough calories and drinking enough water. Eating and drinking are the most important things a patient can do to make everything as easy as possible. The better your father can do with taking in at the very least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water every single day, the easier this will be for him. I know it sounds like alot but those are the bare daily minimums, if you can get your father to push himself to take in more that will only help to make everything easier on your father. Cancer patients going thru a cancer diagnosis, treatments and then the recovery phase affects how their body burns calories. Trying to fight the cancer and rebuild the body causes patients to burn calories at an incredible rate which is why they need such a huge amount of calories and water. I tend to nag our members about intake. I hate seeing anyoen struggle especially when its something that they can change just by upping their intake.

Best wishes for your fathers continued recovery.