Thanks for your post Cecilia. Made me realize I needed to update.

So I am now at the half-way point of my treatment (well I will be after the radiation treatment on Monday). It does feel good to say half-way done, but I am aware that this was probably the easier half, though maybe not psychologically speaking, at least for me.

Radiation: I am finding a little bit of mucositis. I guess it is not troubling me more because I have saliva from my parotids. I did not realize this until recently (duh, I know) that they would be able to spare them. That is pretty exciting to me. I almost hate to mention it here because I know that lack of saliva is devastating to folks, although all of us cope with our own set of problems, and some do that quite well. I am guessing this happened because my oral under the tongue lesion was so small, and they went in the second time and took extra wide margins, finding no cancer. My mouth is still somewhat dry especially in the morning (my submandibular glands are gone), and I have to drink water to wash down my food, and it takes me an incredibly long time to eat. The mucositis is on part of my soft palate, and especially on the inside of my chin, if that makes sense, and I also have a spot that I feel when I swallow.
Not complaining, just reporting . . .

I am certainly coping with chemo much better, now that I know more what to expect from each and every medication. If I take Zofran I can get rid of my nausea and feel decent.

My MO is refering me to a speech pathologist because I have such tightness when I swallow (yet I can swallow). I probably need a little work on my enunciation as well. When I talk to my husband it is always, "what did you say," and part of that is that we think he is losing some hearing besides my slurred speech. Yeh, getting old.

I am slightly anemic and they have me on an iron pill; good news though as my hemoglobin and hematocrit go up each week.

My outlook on my disease has improved considerably. I finally realized I could not affect it one bit, except perhaps negatively, by worrying. When I got rid of that baggage, not exactly all by my own doing, my blood pressure and heart rate went down! As a result of that, I noticed I felt better in general.

I am using acquafor on my neck, which is taking the largest hit from radiation, and also on other spots on my face. Everyone here thinks I spend a lot of time on it, and I don't. So I don't know what's up with that. Maybe something about my skin?
I do tan easily without trying (I'm past those days)and seldom burn.

All in all, at this point I can't complain. Next week will unfold with possibly some new problems, but I am not going to play the anticipation game anymore, so I'll leave it there.

For those of you who know Jim Beers through this board, I had a fun text conversation with him, as I noticed he had an almost identical situation as mine. Made me feel great to communicate with someone who was doing well 2 years post treatment.

Best,
Anne