Hi - I'm a newbie. My sister recently was diagnosed with cancer in her parotid gland (salivary). She has no money and no insurance which makes this all even worse. She did find a doctor who would do the surgery. I went with her to the post op and he said it was a high grade tumor - I think Adenoid carcinoma (not sure of the spelling). He said he found the cancer in one lymph node and recommended she start radiation in a few weeks. He didn't talk staging and I didn't know enough to ask. The only side effects he mentioned when she asked was dry mouth and he said fatigue wouldn't be a problem. She is self-supporting - does heavy lifting in a gardening center. From what I'm reading, she's going to be unable to work. Is this correct? Isn't fatigue a huge issue? And should she wait a few weeks to start radiation? I just didn't feel like he felt anything was urgent at all. Also, she's extremely thin and I'm worried she'll lose even more weight after this. She's continuing to smoke because he said this wasn't caused by that. I told her she HAS to quit to help her immune system fight this. Any info would be appreciated!