Thanks Tammy. I don't remember as much with the chemo brain and carb fog lol. I didn't know the name of the drug, now I do, used for the stress test, which is scheduled on January 24th the same day as radiation and chemo. I think I'm going to reschedule, and ask my RO his thoughts if it creates more pressure on my carotid artery stubs, which is where my radiation is directed at. I take a low dose Bp medicine, Amlodipind, prescribed by nephrologist, so it may be kidney related too, and was like this before my recent surgery, except for racing heart.

My RO gave me a prescription for nystatin, swish and swallow, for the thrush, and nurse gave me samples of NeutraSal (Supersaturated Calcium Phosphate Rinse), a FDA reviewed product, indicated for the treatment of Xerostomia (dry mouth) and oral mucositis, and signed me up for the direct access program, so I should be getting more delivered. It's a little powder, pretty tasteless, to be mixed in a cap, swish and spit 2x.

As far as Protons vs IMRT, Protons takes longer to set up. My first round of IMRT in 2011 was bilaterally, from bridge of nose to the shoulders basically, 17 zaps, and took 17 minutes from start to finish. With Protons, I'm getting two locations, and this usually takes 30 minutes, but the zaps you it really don' hear, but some slight clinking in the background. The mask is the same, some UFO looking contraption hovering over your head, is the same for both. Also, there are not many studies to compare IMRT to Proton Treatment. In fact, from my understanding, there is no need for any clinical trials like chemo needs to have before FDA approval, and medical technology just needs to show it works just as well or better then the current technology, under 510(K) to get FDA approval. There are newer Proton Treatment machines being approved that have less footprint than the larger gantry type. Mine is a smaller incline beam proton machine, although they have two other types, flat beam, and large gantry, all using the same protons.