Katy:
A CCC is a comprehensive cancer center; there are only about 20 of them in all the U.S. I don't know if Nashville has one, but Christine is very good about posting the link that shows where all of them are. Their main advantage is they are truly the forefront of treatment knowledge about cancer; it's where you will get the best care as all their doctors are the best in the business.

Edit: When I started writing this post, Christine hadn't already answered this question. Sorry for the duplication.

To make a signature click on My Stuff above your first post and select Edit Profile, go down to Signature and then start typing. Read some of our signatures first so you will have an idea of what you want to say in yours. I have changed my signature about once a month as I went through treatment.

Right now I would post all my questions in this one thread; don't go bouncing all over the forum asking questions in multiple places. If you put everything here we all get to know you better and faster and can respond with the most appropriate information. A good time to leave this Introduce Yourself forum is when you start rads and or chemo, then start a thread in the Currently in Treatment forum. Look in my signature and see how I did it. Mine is not the only way of course.

I understand you think you want rads and chemo right now, as from what you've read that sounds like the correct way to go. If your care team uses a tumor board approach, then they form a panel usually consisting of surgeon, ENT, radiation oncologist, medical oncologist (chemo) and anybody else they think is needed. They all get together, discuss the particulars of your case and decide on a course of treatment. I don't know what they will decide, but if they decide it's rads only, don't get all upset and start second guessing them. Instead, trust your doctors, they know a LOT more than we do. They know what is best for your particular diagnosis. Many of our members have pretty strong opinions about what they think is the correct treatment for a given diagnosis. It happened to me, many on the forum thought I should also be getting chemo, but my tumor panel said rads only. In the end I had to just decide if I trusted my doctors ... I did.

Now, as for your nutrition. If you are a slender, tiny little thing and have already started losing weight then this is going to be tough on you. I was a plump little dumpling before rads began, so I had lots of extra I could afford to lose. The general rule is if you lose 10% of your body weight, then they will be wanting you to go on a PEG feeding tube. None of us want them (and I didn't need one), but getting malnourished because you are not eating enough and losing too much weight WILL put you in the hospital, and that's far worse than the feeding tube. I know the mouth/throat hurt, but you need to be eating like a horse right now. It WILL get worse during treatment. I reached 10% weight loss on my last day of treatment, that's the only thing that kept me off the tube. I lost some more weight during first 2 weeks post treatment, but now the weight has started returning.

When you have more questions, write. Otherwise, go eat something, preferably something with lots of calories, and fat and protein. Right now is not the time to be trying to eat that healthy, low fat diet.

Tony