I am so excited to pick Ken up at the Clinic today. Only six more weeks to go! This week went really well with the chemo and radiation, no nausea, eating a lot, and mostly just bored and eager to come home. The exciting part was when the lump in his neck actually started to shrink! His mask was looser yesterday, and the doctor could tell a difference, too. It made him feel like something was actually happening--quite a morale boost! I'm sure things will get harder as we progress, but right now, I am in a "one day at a time" mode, and looking forward to the weekend!

Sherry, I remember being so amazed that the tumors, one of which was at 6cm, visibly shrank after the first round of chemo! It DID do a lot to perk up spirits.

Do take advantage of this weekend - Eat lots of favorite things and do something FUN!

Love
Nicki

Sherry,

I am glad the first week went so well. I look forward to hearing more great news from you and Ken!

Ed

hey Sherry,

you are an angle for Ken. glad to hear the treatment is shrinking that tumor.

my black cat took naps with me on weekends and helped nurse me back. i wonder if dolores is doing the same for Ken. if so, he's got two angles.

cu,
larryb

Delores,
some of us have had a rather dramatic response to treatment. A three week into treatment CT scan showed that my 6cm tumor had completely disappeared. I am also a right tonsil survivor.

Same Here Delores
9cm tumor just went away...like magic!
Happy Days for you...enjoy.
Love
Marica

It's nice to know the chemo is working by seeing the tumor shrink, especially since today the side effects have kicked in big time. He has been unable to do anything except sleep since yesterday afternoon when he got home from the hospital. Nausea is ever-present but under control. No appetite, but he managed to eat a bowl of cereal and some peaches; his liquid intake is good, though. Mouth sores are starting to appear, too, so he uses the mouth rinse a lot. Does the extreme fatigue last long? He doesn't go in for another round of chemo for three weeks; I hope the effects of this round subside a bit before then.

Sherry (AKA Delores ;-),
I take it he's getting Cisplatin - that's usually a three week treatment protocol. It will get slowly better until the next Tx then he gets to start over. For me everything had a metallic taste and I had a chemical body odor for quite a while until that stuff was finally purged from my system. He MUST drink 2-3 liters of water daily to protect his kidneys from damage. My second round was much worse than the first. Much more nausea and synergystic effect with the radiation. Everyone is different though and his reactions may be much milder.

It's hard to say about the fatigue but it is a well known side effect of cancer treatment. It took me about a year before I was at 95%. The radiation is a bigger cause of fatigue than the chemo. Figure on a month of recovery for every week of radiation. Some folks here have worked through Tx - not me though.

I really don't think that the chemo is really doing much on it's own. It is an adjunct to the radiation which is the primary curative method. I would put my money on the radiation for shrinking those tumors.

Sherry, I had no bad results from the chemo treatment. I was on the every 21 day ciplatin chemo schedule, too, and went to the hospital for 2-4 days each time. I checked in on Thursday morning and they put me on high water drip, with anti-nausea just before chemo on Friday morning. Of course, rad treatment both days, as usual. They kept me on water drip on Saturday and discharged me on Sunday. That was the first treatment. The second treatment they got me out on Saturday and let me go on Friday after the third treatment. I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. Probably should have hung around longer on the last chemo, though, as I didn't do quite as well as the first two. Bottom line is, as Gary said, we all react differently. Ken may be able to get through the next one easily. By the way, I forgot to mention that they put me to sleep with each chemo treatment, so I wasn't awake to see if I got nausious or not. By the time I woke up, it was all done. Will pray for you both as you progress through treatment.