Stacey,

Baby steps are important but he really MUST complete the entire treatment or it may all be for nothing and have to be repeated again. At least one study indicates that HPV does increase his survival chances but that is assuming he gets the same treatment as if he were not HPV+ meaning at least appx 35 radiation sessions with appx 70-72 gys and possibly chemo. Unfortunately HPV does not guarantee that he will survive as we have seen many HPV+ patients over the years succumb to this horrible cancer dispite being treated. He must understand that he and you are in for the fight for his LIFE. This is not a bad case of the flu. This cancer kills someone every hour of every day and will surely, without a doubt in my mind, kill him in a very cruel way if he does not eliminate the cancer from his body.

There may shortly come a time when you must expose your fangs and become the Caregiver from Hell. My wife and many others have had to do that during this treatment so don't feel alone.

Re the TSH levels...first off, radiation can permanently damage his thyroid. If that happens, like it did to me it is determined by measuring his post Tx TSH levels to see if they fall outside the "normal" range. Unfortunately this "normal" range is very wide and most docs are satisfied if they prescribe a pill (synthyroid) that returns your TSH to within this very wide "normal" range but we have found out that we all seem to have our own unique "normal" TSH level and only by returning us to OUR normal will we be, well normal. That's why we always advise getting your TSH tested pre Tx so that normal number can be archived just in case. Charm knows more about this than I so maybe he will explain it better.

We will be there for the both of you for as long as you want.