Hi,

I'm so glad I found this site during our diagnosis stage! My 43 year old husband Sam got sick last Christmas and had a sore throat, cough & headaches which led to a mild pneumonia diagnosis. The headaches and trouble swallowing continued and lymph nodes on the right side of neck started swelling in mid-February. After blood tests, sinus & throat ultrasounds, and a chest x-ray, the family doctor thought it might be lymphoma and referred us to a general surgeon who performed a lymph node biopsy (full node removed) mid-March where he told us it was squamous cell carcinoma. A gastrophy, CT scan, tongue biopsy & PETscan later indicated the tumour was quite large, but was confined to the right side of the tongue/throat and had not spread elsewhere. We started at the BC Cancer Agency two weeks ago and had the 2nd of 35 radiation treatments along with the 1st of a once-weekly chemo booster of Cisplatin today.

Will be a tough road as we have a 2 yr old toddler and 5 month old baby, but have hope as my mom is a throat cancer survivor of 15 years. Am still on maternity leave so driving him to treatments, etc. is possible.

Not sure if others have experienced, but for the tongue biopsy the surgeon took 4 different samples and the swelling was so bad for two days Sam couldn't really take anything (not even through a syringe) - we almost ended up getting an IV drip. It's been almost a month post-procedure and he is still having lots of trouble with his tongue (swollen, lots of saliva, can't move around enough to eat solid food). As he's already lost over 50 lbs before start of treatment, it's hindered our efforts to get the weight stabilized and feeling as strong as possible going into the treatments. Any ideas as to what to do? PEG was inserted 1 1/2 weeks ago and diet is almost all high calorie shakes/Ensure.



Elaine