Thank you guys so much for your responses. I think he is really worried at this point again, because the pain is not "worse" but more often. This week is extremely tired too. I explained to him that this is all a "normal" part of this, and not to be concerned. AND i agree 180% about the ENT with the pain meds. if it were up to his ENT he would be completely off of his meds! but just not possible.. so it is normal to have good weeks and then have such a bad week? I did speak with the ENT and he said at this point, he is not worried that the Cancer is back, BUT will always worry because it was such a bad one... I will maybe suggest to my mom increasing that patch.. i guess his main concern is the fact that the patch was fine along with the Norco every 6 hours and now that is just not doing it.. because he had a reoccurence in the past, which of course lead to this horrific surgery, he feels he is going backwards. i am going to go ahead and copy and past these responses and email them to my father.. thank you all so much.. this website has become such a huge part of my life.. first thing i do after i put the kids to bed :-).. thank you for your kind words and inspiration!
nicki