Hi Heather,
Great to hear your eating and swallowing some. Keep working that process, sounds like you're on the way to success! Concerning your thoughts about radiation and chemo, I just completed radiation and chemo (For the second time in four battles) after a radical neck dissection in December. It was explained to me the way you described it in another post (Rogue cells that might not be visible during surgery or outside the margins--Insurance for the future). Treatment went well when I reference this trip to what all I went through eight years ago, not to say it was a cake walk but I maintained my weight, and didn't even come close to the nausea I endured the last time! Of course the chemo was different and there were different side effects to deal with but I think I was just better prepared for what I was dealing with at every level. My doctors are very pleased as my oncologist was telling me all along that it would be risky and possibly brutal the second time around and most don't get through it, which is OK, we would just go until I said "Enough, stop," which I never did. Sorry to be so long winded but I want you to have a comfort level in knowing some medical teams/tumor boards think the three combined treatments are a successful treatment model and I am sure your medical team wants to make sure this disease is GONE for you once and for all (As is my prayer/wish for you). My first fight almost nine years ago saw me coming back several months later with a recurrence, and my wife and I sometimes think back the "What if" scenario of throwing everything at it the first time around, but my first surgeon just did not really believe in radiation and chemotherapy, and was pretty adamant about it (May have saved me the recurrence but the last two fights were in totally different areas so I still would be fighting right now). If a second opinion makes you feel better by all means get that feedback, but when you're in a fight you're fighting to win so nothing is off limits, right? Put together the facts and go where your heart and your head leads you! Praying and best wishes for you!