Most of us bitch about not getting a complete informed consent briefing, and late side effects which only come up in 50% of the people can't be covered in detail with everyone since there are so many (you could write a book on just that subject). I have tons of collateral issues still today a decade out, that are getting worse as time passes. But I give my doctors a pass on not telling me every minor possibility of what might happen to me down the road. After all, what was I going to do, NOT have the radiation treatments because my mouth was going to go dry, or my face was going to lose movement on one side 8 years out etc. etc? Of course not. I would have still had the treatments, the alternative would have been that I wouldn't be here today.

Bottom line there is a very long list of possible side effects of all these treatments. Most of us are going to get some of them. Some of us are going to get most of them. But with few options for treatment, what are you going to do? We just learn to deal with them after the fact, and be thankful that we are part of the 50% that actually survives the process. Keeping that perspective makes dealing with it easier��.