Hi Doc K

Last question first: there is NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO OCF FORUM for oral cancer patients, yes, I know I shouted that via all caps, but I thought it was important for you to recognize that you are already ahead of the game here in finding OCF so early. I only read Mayo Clinic, NIH, medical journals my first TX due to two faulty assumptions: first, that a patient based forum would not have have any info that the doctors wouldn't give me and second, that going to a CCC would mean a true integrated approach or having a patient navigator. Both were wrong. You can take a look around the net, but the Base of tongue cancer survival group on Livestrong is typical: 21 posts this entire year with half of them by me. Not even a slow day at the OCF forum.

Work depends on you and your job. I worked from the time I was diagnosed in August 2007 right through radiation and chemo in Sept, October and November. Since the radiation was daily Monday thru Friday, I set up a home office with a Virtual Private Network, a secure laptop issued by work, and my speaker phone for meetings. I answered most of the emails from 1 pm to 4 am when I could not sleep and wrote memoranda and opinions in the afternoon after a nap. By December I went back to work in the office but retired that January. Not because I couldn't do the job anymore, but because I had a foreboding premonition that the cancer would come back and I wanted to travel with my wife before that happened. Turned out to be a good call.

While you likely can't do your patients virtually on line (yet), the paper pushing and meetings workload is easily doable IMO. Sorry you have to join OCF, but welcome
Charm