JoAnne, my DH is also at about the same timeline. 61 years old. Stage 4 SCC. Never smoked and didn't drink. He had radical neck dissection and partial glossectomy with flap done on 2/7/06 and started radiation, 5/week, on 3/13/06 and had his second dose of Cisplatin today, probably his last for the chemo. He has 2-3 more weeks of radiation. His white blood cell count was too low on Monday, so they gave him shots and gave him his chemo today instead. He had 2 days off of radiation as well because of the blood count. He has the XRT radiation because of the node involvement. Several nodes were involved on both sides, but CT and PT showed nothing elsewhere.

He has done well so far, taking no pain meds yet, which I think is odd. No mouth sores yet either, but the mucous is getting bad. He uses the club soda for rinsing and that really helps and we also have a suction machine that our insurance covers. The Biotene products for mouthwash and toothpaste work well too and we have the Biafine cream for radiation burns.

He has used the J-tube since surgery since he has great difficulty swallowing. I will try putting water in it tonight for a continuous slow flow since he had the Cisplatin today. Haven't thought about using the pump for hydration, just for the formula. He has been seeing a speech/swallow therapist for several weeks already. I will remember to give the Zofran twice a day before the nausea erupts, and use the other for breakthrough. We haven't heard of emend.

No ethyol---they were not able to place a pick line with 2 tries, and he said to forget it. They won't give the ethyol without a pick or port because of the possibility of sudden low blood pressure.

Miserable but managable is where we are at also. And some days I must not read this forum, and other days, like today, I am glad to be here for support.

We fight the good fight---together.