And another thing....

In case you're wondering what the diet is:
6 servings of ensure in addition to normal eating
2 15g supplements of L-glutamine per day
2 TBS of honey 15 min. before rad., 15 min. after rad., and 6 hours following (taken before treatments begin just to get used to the taste)
2000mg fish oil twice per day (to help increase appetite)

Jen

I do not know how I could have missed your intriguing posts. No need to apologize for wanting to avoid a PEG. I have ignited fiery threads here that have been closed down due to the brutal attacks on my sharing that I was as proud as proud can be on avoiding a PEG and awarded myself imaginary medals & heroic status. It's just a difference of opinion on an elective procedure and not surprisingly everyone thinks what they did was the right thing. Your diet sounds right on the money. I went through all my radiation and chemo just on Ensure. I wish you every success.
Charm

Jen

Also I should note that I like your doctor's marathon analogy,
I finished four of them with my best time of 3 hours and 15 minutes. I used to quiz my medical team when they would use the marathon analogy only to find that only I had run them.
It is a good comparison however.
Charm

Jen,
I would drink Ensure Plus rather than Ensure. It's about 350 calories per can so you need less cans and in my opinion tastes much better. I would avoid the strawberry flavor. IMO it is awful. Vanilla, coffee and butter pecan were my favorites. I managed on about 1500-1800 calories a day with no peg and only loss 5 pounds, but I'm only 5'5 and 120 pounds.

Take care,
Eileen

Better yet drink Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC which has 560 calories in the same size can. Yummy vanilla is their only flavor!~!~ lol

I drank them all--Boost, Ensure and of course Carnation VHC. I grew to like Carnation, when I was able to eat and had a couple of cases left over I used it in my coffee. I also liked the fact that I ordered it online through Amazon (accessed through OCF) and it would miraculously show up on my front porch.

In fact, that's how I order my dog food--it's great getting 30 to 60 pound bags dropped off at my house

Stay strong

Thanks to everyone for the diet tips! I looked online for ensure and it didn't seem cheaper than buying it in the store. When I get sick of the ensure I might try ordering that carnation stuff from Amazon.

In the meantime...an update.

I finally have a treatment plan. It seems they're doing a lot of high dosages of stuff "because I'm young and can handle it."

In reading other folks signatures my upcoming course of treatment seems pretty standard, but let me know your opinion on the following for someone with clear margins and no visible signs (per MRI and CT) of any cancer remaining after this last batch of surgery:
***33 doses of Hi-Art IMRT, up to 66 Gy in my scar area. Areas to be hit by radiation: both sides of my neck and all of my oral tongue down through the lymphnode drainage area, while specifically avoiding my right check salivary gland and larynx.
***Concurrent doses of Cisplatin, 3 times, 100mg/m^2 each

The plan now is to start chemo Monday (12/21) morning, immediately followed by the first dose of radiation. This is all tentative on them finishing my radiation program though. I think my RO was saying that the computer design program liked to crash a lot.

At this point I'm just ready to get this whole thing started. The sooner I begin, the sooner I finish and can enjoy being in remission once again.

keep those calories (more the better!!) going down and good luck.

Stay strong

Jen,

Don't underestimate how important nutrition is. It would definitely be great if you can avoid the peg tube, but if you start losing too much weight you should definitely consider it. Also, my Mom's Cancer Center (in Philly) did a great job of monitoring her blood counts and her nutrition, which I truly believe made a huge difference. Before she started treatments there, her Vitamin D levels were extremely low so she needed to take supplements.

I definitely agree that, although unpleasant, it's better to over-attack the cancer than under-attack it. Make sure you stay hydrated sufficiently too. Usually you can get hydration treatments right in the hospital via IV. Very important (especially when getting chemo).

Good luck with everything.

Jen

Keep the Faith. Your TX plan sounds reasonable, hardly over the top (this from the perpective of a two time cancer with 96 Gray radiation, 8 Erbitux and 3 carboplatin chemos). I used Ensure Plus because it tasted better than Carnation VHC plus did not trigger as much mucous. It is doable. And you can do it.
Charm