Welcome to OCF Sandy. Wish we met on better circumstances but glad you found us. In addition to the advice above, make sure he goes to the initial appointments with a second person. Its a lot of information to take in and a second set of ears if a great help.

To answer your question Xylocaine Viscous is a useful anesthetic to help him eat. It needs a prescription so bring that up with the oncologist or whichever doctor you see next.

Its a scary time but its very important to not give in to the fear. Don't go Googling things, you'll just scare yourselves. As cancers go this one is very treatable and he'll have a better than average prognosis. It sounds like he is in good hands so try to keep calm while the diagnosis and treament plan gets put together.