I have never had to do this type of thing...so please bear with me. I have never even posted anything besides facebook so I hope I'm getting this right. My father has been diagnosed with stage 2 squamous cell carcinoma located at the base of his tongue on the left side of his throat. Otherwise known as "Throat cancer". He is 78 and had his first treatment of
Erbitux chemo and radiation yesterday. We live in a small city in MI where there is a limited population of people with this type of cancer that are willing to talk to others about their experience. What am I asking for? Well, let's see...is my father going to be strong enough to get through all this treatment? He is in good health in so many ways for his age. You know the usual stuff, good strong heart,healthy lungs, no major health problems that so many elderly people have. The major problem that I see with him is that he is VERY thin. He is 5'6" and weighs in at 150#. A PEG line is being placed tomorrow morning and I am hoping that we can start getting some nutrients in him after that. This morning after his first treatment he is not doing well at all. I managed to get a bottle of Ensure in him but that was about it. He is so tired and cannot warm himself. His fever was at 99.1 and I gave him some liquid Tylenol. He is on a Fentonyl patch and they gave me a liquid compound with Lidocain to ease the pain. He is also experiencing a massive headache symptom at the base of his neck, which is normal with this type of chemo. But I am astounded by how "out of it" he seems. Is this normal? When I spoke to the nurse at the Oncologist's office she assured me that he would be "OK" and that if his fever got higher than 100 to call and they would take a look at him. Is there anything else I should be doing for him? Any suggestions on how and what I should expect? Will these symptoms get worse with his treatment or will his body adjust? Should I encourage him to get out and do things that are his normal routine things to do? Or should I be encouraging him to stay in bed and rest? What is the best way to go about all of this? I'm so scared because he is reacting so fast to this and he hasn't even gone through a full day yet. Anybody? Thanks, Susan
