Thanks to all for the additional info you supplied. Marie-Jeanne---prayers with you and your father. We're trying hard to encourage mom to drink & eat more (what little she can eat) to "beef up" for the radiation she'll begin. We're thinking at this time, and her too, that maybe things won't be so difficult in the end. She had surgery to the roof of her mouth in April, and despite the Erbitux (alone) it's now in her sinus cavity. She's having some little nosebleeds & this week she said it's now "uncomfortable"....says little else. She cared for a man years ago in the nursing home she worked at who'd had 1/2 his face eaten away by cancer...she does not want to deal or us to deal with something so horrible. We don't feel she's strong enough to do much radiation...but she's going to start it. We were of no help in coming to a decision about doing radiation...and we feel it's probably past the point where it will help much...but who knows....I just know she's a very brave person. And I think the individuals who have fought this battle are some of the bravest I know. Thanks to all of you who share so much of yourselves. Jane