Yes, Yes, Yes to the vicodin, I am using it and not worrying about it for once. I have always had a healthy fear of becoming dependent on a medication........but this time I'm just going to roll with it all. My husband said to just "wuss" out for awhile, stop trying to be so tough about everything. I am taking him up on it. I slept most of the day, got up around 2am to find my 17 year old still struggling with all of her make up work. She goes to a very academic Christian school that is loving to her but still expects her to do her work even during this tough time. She was working on these sheets that had to do with William Bradford's, "Of Plymouth Plantation" and William Byrd's, "The History of the Dividing Line"..............put me to sleep now please. I had forgotten how boring Bradford was and Byrd only beat him by a slight mark. It made me feel bad to see her up by herself doing that, I always help with the homework, I admit that I always LOVED school. So we tackled it and got it done, were sitting there with me writing on my dry erase, cracking her up as usual.......and we heard scratching at our front door. Our loyal best dog in the world, Lucy, had been jumping up on the dining room table at the front of the house all night......acting really odd. Mercedes told me she heard something at the front door so we went down the hall to check it out. I opened the front door and Lucy went crazy, just as a HUGE possum went running across my front porch. Scared me to DEATH and I couldn't even holler at the darn thing for scaring us. Such a normal moment and so needed. We got her homework done and she is fast asleep now, as she needs to be back up at 5:30 to get ready for school. She misses me the most and it's so obvious to everyone, but I know she went to bed happy. When she walked into my hospital room after their afternoon spent at the Inner Harbor of Maryland and had on a Tshirt that read, "Make Music Not War" all I could think is, "That's me 30 years ago".

Yes, nutrition, nutrition is the name of the game right now. I've been pouring the cans of food down my tube, five a day, so I don't lose any of the weight I put on. I can't wait to get rid of this bolster in my mouth, it tastes nasty and keeps my mouth held wide open, which is uncomfortable.

I'm going to move this "thread" to my blog and the 'recurrence" page so that this board doesnt' get clogged with it. See you all there!
Much love,
Minnie

SCC Left Mandible. Jaw replaced with bone from leg. Neck disection, 37 radiation treatments. Recurrence 8-28-07, stage 2, tongue. One third of tongue removed 10-4-07. 5-23-08 chemo started for tumor behind swallowing passage, Our good friend and much loved OCF member Minnie has been lost to the disease (RIP 10-29-08). We will all miss her greatly.