First, thank you to those who encouraged the second opinion by the medical specialists who deal with head and neck cancers 'all the time!' We visited with 8 doctors in 1.5 days -- wow! By last appointment with radiation oncologist, I just did not want to hear anything anymore -- emotionally exhausted! But we stuck in there and this guy was incredible! Very upbeat very positive! Which after earlier that day having the first 'staging' done for my husband's cancer, was much needed. The medical oncologist staged it at a 4B mostly due to size of the neck tumor. The surgeon -- who we visited with first -- recommended against surgery due to the high risk for complications. While we hated hearing all those potential complications, how much worse it would have been to have gone through surgery as recommended by our local docs and awoken to realize some of the worst scenarios might have occurred.

Thank you thank you for encouraging us to seek the highly skilled, highly experienced medical team. I knew in my heart it was what the right thing to do but husband was just wanting to get it taken care of and not wanting to wait. Of course I wanted to respect his opinions and desires, but through your encouragement, we indeed sought out a consultation with the head and neck cancer center at a university a couple hundred miles away. Well worth the time and and investment. We now have 100 percent confidence in our team. What is the take away -- as I think David said -- pursue opions from those who see this all the time.

We start induction chemo next Wed. The doctors said we would probably not be up for thanksgiving -- guess that's how fast this stuff works -- but that this would be one missed for many many more! Believe we go 2-3 rounds of this induction and then move into chemo-radiation. The treatment is obviously much longer now than surgery followed by chemo-radiation, but we feel -- again -- very very confident that we are on the right path.

I'm sure sounding strong now, eh? I'm sure I'll be chiming in soon enough when we hit the hard spots and I'm seeking encouragement here and advice and the 'hug' that comes from this group. As thanksgiving approaches I wish to thank everyone here for the sharing and genuine caring that I read. Best wishes to each of you this week!

Gayle