Thanks david,
He has a stage 4 SCC w/ spindlke cell variant timour in his hypopharangeal space. It takes up the entire space, so they can't remove it with margins,and it had spread to lymph nodes on both sides of his neck. We live in NY and I'm sure we are getting excellent care- we are at NYPH and had the same recommendations from memorial sloan kettering- so I do ahve faith in the doctors. He had induction chemo (3 diff chemicals- I know cysplatinum and FU5, not sure of the 3rd)in the hospital for 5 days while they wrote the IMRT program. He started chemo/radiation 3/5/09- he's getting cysplatinum every 3 weeks and radiation every day for 35 times.
The first 2 weeks of radiation were fine (so was the induction chemo) and then he turned a corner. He developed thrush and they've given him an antifungus med that starts with an F. Hopefully that will reduce the pain. He does have pain killers but he can't even talk and cries or sleeps most of the time. I just think he needs to focus on an end to the treatment. He does have a PEG adn he is feeding himself through it with 4 cans of food and 60 cc's of water each feeding- and trying to drink but really only gets down a few bites of yogurt or a few sips of ensure. This is pretty awful.