Hi Dave
the G'day was a dead give away. We are in Sydney and it is my Alex who had the oral cancer. I am loosely referred to as the carer but "slave driver" is sometimes a closer description.

Welcome, there are a few Aussies around who have a wealth of experience especially with surgery. Alex was "unresectable" which basically meant the tumour could only be removed if they cut him off at the neck. As he likes living and this would intefere with beer drinking and talking we opted for a long and brutal course of chemotherapy (12 weeks) and then chemoradiation which you already know about. Standard seems to be 7 weeks so your 44 treatments sounds like a week more than most people could stand. Hope you are feeling better now and if you have any issues that you need help with, please don't hesitate to ask. You are very young and will bounce back a lot faster than us "old farts" who, 6 months after treatment finished are only jusst getting back on track.

It might be worthwhile asking your oncologist to test your tumour for HPV (human papilloma virus) as it is often the culprit in young non smokers. Also you should have a PET in the future but it is normal and preferable to wait until you are completely healed before doing it. About 12 weeks after treatment seems to be a fair thing as the swelling from radiation and surgery should have gone down by then.