Hi. My name is Sean, and after visiting the site a few times to gather information, I decided to register and introduce myself. I am a 40 y/o male, active duty Army, recently returned from Iraq in February. I am a non-smoker and occasional social drinker. I was referred to ENT after seeing the docs with what I thought was a very painful cold sore on the right side of my tongue, I was diagnosed with stage 2 SCC. I had surgery last month (partial glossectomy and neck dissection on the right side). I lost a little less than half of my tongue. Pathology showed I had cancer in one of the 16 lymph nodes they removed from my neck. Monday 8/24 I go in to have a PEG and port put in, then I start 6 weeks of rad therapy and 3 chemo sessions (Cisplatin). Being in the Army, I go to Tripler Army Med. Center here in Honolulu, and I can say so far these folks are the best medical folks I have ever dealt with. They have every clinic you could ask for right here. My wife is my caregiver, she is a nurse and has been very supportive and loving through this whole ordeal. We want to make it through this treatment and I want to recover to stay in the Army (22 years and I am not ready to call it quits yet!)
If there are any other military folks that here, I welcome any advice (or advice from anyone else as well!). I am quite nervous because I am being told by everyone this is going to be a very tough treatment. But my wife and I have faith we will get through it.

Sean, welcome to OCF.

Thank you for your years of service to this country!!!! My son is soon to become a Marine. Military people are like family just like you will see here in OCF members. We all rally in support of each other and give guidance along the way.

One thing you would want to do now is EAT!!!! Thru the tratment process your sense of taste will change dramatically and it will become difficult to taste and swallow. Just make sure you swallow and do swallowing exercises. Dont be concerned about calories just eat all your favorites and then some.

One big thing is if your have spent time reading here, never forget that everyone is different. We all react differently to treatments, even the location of our oral cancers can be different. Be careful with cisplatin and hearing loss. Thats a very common side effect, I was also very ill. So sick from it that my thrid round was cancelled.

You are fortunate to have your wife by your side thru this. She will need support too at times. Please let her know we have a special tab titled caregivers.

I wish you the very best of luck with your procedure on Monday. The PEG tube can be tricky. I had a difficult time with the bolus and gravity methods of feedings. Even a few formulas made me sick. I am having a major surgery on Monday so will not be around to help you for a while. Just look for my posts about PEG feedings if you run into any difficulty. Ask for a feeding pump.

Getting enough calories and water daily will make a huge difference. Shoot for 3000 calories per day and 48 oz water. Also check out posts from wfc, he got thru this pretty easily. Best of luck with everything

Hi Sean, this site is going to be one of your lifelines....keep reading, ask questions, let it all out - your wife too...this site will be your diary, but filled with wonderful selfless people who will be here for you always....I've just learnt this myself...
Jeanna

Hi Sean and welcome
in answer to your question we have our very own resident military member Bob Whyte he is/was a marine and a great great guy.I am sure if you PM him you will get on like a house on fire.

Good Luck with the TX

Welcome Sean and thanks for protecting our country.

What out for the potential of hearing loss with the Cisplatin. Talk to your MO. I would even suggest that you ask for a pre Tx hearing test to establish a baseline so they/you can blame the Tx if your hearing goes south. They tell you to watch out for ringing in your ear. To me it didn't sound like ringing but more like a very faint buzz and it will come and go and I didn't really pay attention to it until I was at the last part of my Tx and it was to late to stop the Cisplatin.

As Christine said, get as many calories into you now as possible. Gain as much weight as you can. It will never hurt going into the rad/chemo where most of us loose serious pounds.

Do you have any questions at this point?

Sean --

Look for posts by Stoj, who is active duty Air Force and was treated in the military health-care system. Bob Whyte is a 21-year Army veteran (that's what he said in his first posting, though his OCF signature ends with "Semper Fi" -- the Marine Corps motto), though I don't think he was on active duty when he was diagnosed.

You can send any OCF member an e-mail or a private message by going to User List at the top of each page and clicking on his or her profile, where you'll find both an e-mail address (if the person chose to include it) and a link to send a private message through the OCF site. You can also find all of his or her posts.

I wish you all the best. It sounds like you have a great support system, both personally and professionally.

Welcome, Sean I'm AIR FORCE vet,I also just signed on ocf. Thank you for your service!! Look foward to help anyway Ican. Im 10 days post left nd ,still waiting on pathology. Take care. Brian R

Welcome Sean - As you can see, you have full support here, and THANKS too, for your service to our country. Stay with us through-out your treatment and we'll pull you thru. JaneP : )

Sorry you wound up here Sean but you fell into great company and support. I am a former Viet Vet. I had 14 years in the Army, then was medically discharged to another life. Anyway, welcome and best of wishes in your treatment and recovery. Kudos to the people treating you. There is just something about people who work in that field that qualifies them for saint status. I am profoundly in awe of anyone who works in the medical field and with challenged children. Stay strong!!

Hi Sean:
First, I want to thank you for your service for our country.

It's very important to remember that everyone has different experiences. Some have a lot of difficulty with treatment, and some, like myself, have very little trouble. Radiatin and chemo treatments have improved. There are much better nausea and pain medications, and the radiation equipment does a much better job of targeting the tumor and avoiding healthy areas.

It's not a process anyone wants to go through, but you can do it. The first 2 weeks will symptom free, but after that you will probably start feeling the effects of the radiation. You will lose your taste buds and may feel a tremendous fatigue. Most people sleep quite a lot during this period.

Some additional words of advice. Eat, Eat, Eat!!! Eat now because for a while you may lose your appetite and definitely lose your taste buds. It's important to maintain a stable weight throughout treatment, and it also helps with recovery.

You eventually may want to switch to a liquid diet. Some ideas are Ensure and Carnation Instant Breakfast. I'm sure you doctor also have prescription nutrition. Also, you have a PEG, I suggest using that as a last resort. It's important that you keep exercising your swallowing muscles.

Ringing in your ears and hearing loss is an issue for Cisplatin so watch for problems. But Cisplatin is also very hard on the kidneys so drinks lots, lots of water to help flush it through your system.

As your teatment progress, please keep us posted and ask any questions you may have. Good Luck and God Bless.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome, and I appreciate the thanks for my service. Yes, I have been warned to eat a lot and I am sure trying (not the most positive of reasons to pig out, but hey!) Thanks for the info on the hearing loss ref. the Cisplatin. I had read that with some of the research I have done, along with the importance of hydration and the other advice.

We visited the chemo clinic Friday and sat down with one of the docs and the nurses. They gave us a real good feel for the procedure, side effects, etc. and they are all great so far.

One of the things that I have had a tough time understanding until recently is why I need to do this treatment if there is no visible cancer left in my body (which all the docs stated there isn't). I had a hard time accepting that there could still be unseen cancer in me and this is the best way to try and fight it. I am still a little nervous because they have told us this is about the toughest treatment they do to fight cancer... so I know I ain't gonna be a walk in the park. But again, we have faith and I will get through it. Thanks for your advice and I will keep you posted.

Sean

Sorry that you are having to deal with this. The radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments are used to clean up any bits of the disease that may still be in our body following the surgery. The chemotherapy will go through your system and the radiotherapy is a more targeted treatment probably around your mouth and neck area, where the tumor and lymph nodes were removed from. It can be very overwhelming.

Best wishes with your treatments. I have visited Hawaii many times, you come from a beautiful part of the world.

Karen

Sean,
First thank you for serving our country. Secondly, you have come to the right place. I do not have a lot go advice for you as I did not have to go through chemo or radiation. Who knows, I may have to later on down the line. There are a lot on here that have been through that and I know that I learn things from their experiences. Good luck with everything.