For the record: Cottonwood, Arizona is located in the central part of the state, halfway between Phoenix (hot) and Flagstaff (cool at 7,000 feet). We're at about 3000 feet and 15 minutes from Sedona and the beautiful Red Rocks there... The town is named after the Cottonwood trees, which are abundant along the Verde River, which in our case is really a creek (if that)...

As for the extra chemo, I'm leaning against it right now for this reason -- according to my radiation oncologist, it will be of very minimal benefit, if any... I've got some more research to do on it, though...

It's been intriguing to follow my radiation oncologist. For awhile he was gung ho about throwing everything and the kitchen sink at me -- ready to add 5FU to the mix, do an additional surgery to take out a section of lymph nodes that weren't getting a mega-dose of radiation, etc. Now, he's saying "It's OK to stop now -- everything else is of very minimal benefit." I'm kind of confused by it all... I think I'm going to check with MD Anderson about the extra chemo and get their take...

Frankly, I've felt like crap today. stomach-wise. While others throw up for 2-3 days with the Cisplatin, I just feel like I'm going to for 8-10 days... Not sure which is worse... High school football wasn't very fun tonight... And the team I was covering lost in overtime... rats...

Tongue cancer (SCC), diagnosed Oct. 2003 (T2 N0 M0). Surgery to remove tumor. IMRT Radiation 30x in Dec 2003 - Jan. 2004. Recurrence lymph node - radical neck dissection June 2004. Second round of rad/chemo treatments ended Sept. 2004.