Dear Mr. Moe,
please use your lower case. Typing everything in upper case is the same thing as you shouting at us. You made a very good choice to get the second opinion on the radiation, especially at MSKCCC. There can be, as your wife discovered, significant quality of life advantages to using IMRT. They won't happen immediately, radiation is still radiation and it will take a good 18 months before your salivary function is back to some what normal levels.

Also, I must caution you, that some are not candidates for IMRT. If your cancer is poorly differentiated, they may decide that XRT (standard radiation) is best for you. it is still not the end of the world. Many here have had XRT and are getting by very well.

It will take a little time before you will be able to start IMRT if that is what the doctors indicate. They will need at least a CT and an MRI, and possibly a PET scan first, I presume you had already had all of your lab work done. Then you will be fitted for a mask to keep you in a fixed position while being radiated. The software programmers will have to develop a custom treatment package for you. Then you will go through a simulation and only then will treatment start. I was "fast tracked" and it took over a month before I started radiation.