Hello,

I have been reading this forum for about 2 months. I am neither a cancer patient nor a direct caregiver. I am a "caregiver's caregiver". My sister's husband was diagnosed with Stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of buccal mucosa. Though my sister is his caregiver, I consider myself her caregiver.

I am trying to gather information and resources that may be heplful to them during the difficult times ahead. By far this forum has been the most helpful.

My brother-in-law is an otherwise healthy 39 year old with two children, ages 9 and 5. This diagnosis was a complete shock, not only because the buccal mucosa location is extremely rare, but even more so for him because had never chewed tobacco. He is also HPV negative.

They live near Milwaukee and I am in Northern Illinois, so we are 1 hour apart. He is being treated at Froedert Cancer Center in Wisconsin. He started radiation last week and just had his first chemo this week. He is incredibly, horribly nauseous and fatigued from the cisplatin, and I am very worried about both him and my sister. That is what prompted me to finally post. He can barely lift his head up to drink. He had to go back to the hospital for hydration because of the concern for kidney damage. He does not have a PEG tube at this time.

My husband says I need a 2nd brain to help hold all the information I am gathering. That is how I am dealing with this, because I do believe KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. My sister is not a fan of computers so I am checking this forum for her and passing on what may be helpful. I hope my brother-in-law will feel well enough to visit this site soon.

My questions-

So what's the deal with cancer of the buccal mucosa? I hardly see that Dx here!

Cisplatin-how do you get through it?

IMRT-waiting for the side effects to hit soon-any suggestions?

This was lengthy but I want to fully explain the situation. This absolutely sucks and I just want their life to get back to normal! I love them so much-God Please Help Him!