My husband was diagnosed with stage 3 SCC at base of tongue on 7/30 of this year. Being a VA patient, he is receiving his care at the Portland VA, about 4 hours from our home. The advntage of being a VA patient is that his care is paid for 100% and the VA hospital is physically attached to Oregon Health Sciences University where he received his rad therapy. He stayed at a residential unit at the VA during the week and came home on weekends. It was a very stressfull time for both of us. He has PTSD and as you can imagine the depression and anxiety worsened during the diagnosis and treatment. Because the condition of his teeth were not great he had a full mouth extraction 2 weeks before treatment started. He also had a PEG tube put in which he uses religously. He finished 35 radiation treatments and 2 rounds of chemo on 10/31. He had to take a one week break because of severe radiation burns, dehydration and recurring fevers.

Now we have been told that his post treatment CT scan is inconclusive and he will need to have surgery to remove his lymph nodes. Unbelievably, this was told to him over the phone so questions were left unasked or he was told that they would be answered at his preop appointment on 12/10. We are petrified of course. He is assuming (since he got little information from the surgeon) that this a "neck resection" and he will be disfigured. Any thoughts on this?

Meanwhile, I can totally identify with other caregivers. While he was in treatment I continued to work, took care of dogs, horses and cat, and managed a construction project (we added on a new master suite). We had to cancel 2 vacations, one to Ireland and a family trip to Mexico for Thanksgiving, so I am in great need of a vacation. One of the hardest things I had to do was make big and little decisions. Some days it is paralyzing just trying to decide what to eat.

Do things ever get back to normal? Or close to it? We can't go anywhere in public since my husband has trouble with "rubber cement" mucous and continually sounds like a TB patient. Does this EVER go away?

Thanks for listening. I could go on, but I will save it for another time. Thanks again, Cindy