My name is Josee, I am a caregiver to my spouse Mike. He is 41 and was diagnosed with stage 2 SSC base of the tongue HPV 16. He was treated for HPV 20 years ago. He was diagnosed Mar 8th thank god it went fast once we saw the right people. I am a dental hygienist and I found swollen lymph nodes at the beginning of December. I sent him to the family doc, who did not agree that the lymph nodes were swollen. So Mike had to try every ear drop on the market b4 we could get the referral to ENT (of course ENT agreed with me frown ). We are fortunate that it is only stage 2 in nodes (where biopsy was done) and no distant mets. He is in the middle of 35 rad (#19 today) and has had 2/3 doses of cisplatin. Has anyone else has hearing loss? He had ringing after first dose which we told the doctor about. Since second dose, the hearing in his left ear (beside the nodes) has started to lose hearing. We have reported this to the doctor. Is this temporary or permanent?

He has lost 32 pounds and cannot take very much by mouth. Has anyone else had major problems with nausea caused by the dead tumor cells? He is trying everything, our last chance is Maxaren every 8 hours contiunously to see if it can get the nausea under control. If not then its a jegunal feeding tube or TPN (IV nutrition ugh!) Its so hard, feeling powerless and watching him struggle every day. If anyone has been through this and has feedback I would greatly appreciate it.

Praying the Maxaren works ..

Josee

CG to Mike, diagnosed SSC base of tongue March 6/12, T2N2, Stage 4, 35 rads, 3 cisplatin, hospitalized end of treatment TPN nutrition lost 50lbs. lymph nodes in neck necrotic tissue Jan /13, radical neck dissection March 20 positive SCC could not remove all