Michele, welcome to OCF! So sorry to read of your husbands difficult road thru treatments.

Nutrition and hydration are the key to getting thru this. Every single day he must get 48 oz of water and 2500 calories. This is the minimum, anything less and he will have a much harder time than if he had gotten this amount. If he is not able to get 48 oz of water, he can get hydrated at the chemo lab with a doctors prescription. He should have prescription formula for his feeding tube. You can boost his calorie intake by adding Boost Very High Calorie which has 560 calories per can. Get a pump so it can run while he is sleeping. He just needs to be propped up on a couple pillows while he sleeps. This helps by taking the pressure off taking in so much during the day. By immediately increasing his calories and water intake, he will feel a little better. When I would get hydrated I would walk in feeling like I was dying and walk out a couple hours later feeling almost human again.

I know how hard it is and I wanted to quit too. My son gave me a wake up call when I told him I quit. He said something I will never forget "I will not sit back and watch my mother die because this is hard to do. You will finish this if I have to pick you up and carry you in myself". I am a single parent and my son was only 17 years old when I went thru this. He was right too, I had to finish or I was putting my life on the line. I struggled too, was hospitalized for malnutrition and dehydration, had the same open wounds on my neck as you described. Oral cancer treatments are truly barbaric but your husband MUST finish. His life really does depend on it. By quitting he has a high risk of a recurrence or the cancer not being completely gone. He needs to make up his mind that quitting is not an option, he must finish every single one of his treatments no matter what.

There are shots to help boost his white count. Chemo can be reduced or even cancelled but radiation must be finished.

Best wishes!!!!