First... tomorrow you can go thank that "overly kind" stranger who told you your going to lose all your hair that they are WRONG!!! Your hair will be just fine. Cisplatin does NOT cause hair loss. Not all chemos do. All you should lose is a small circle near the back nape of your head where the radiation beam exits. I think my bald spot was about the size of a nickel. The only way it was seen is if I put my hair up or in a pony tail.

Since you are now officially into your rads w/ chemo treatments, its vitally important to make certain you hit your daily minimums of at least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water every single day. Water is even more important on chemo days and to be safe the day after as well. Chemo is hard on the kidneys so you want to flush that poison out of your system. I cant stress for you to focus on your intake enough. Every single day you need to make a point of hitting those minimums. If you can push to 3000 or 35000 calories every day that will only make this whole thing easier on you. I would hate to see you fall into the habit like I did of playing catch up. I wouldnt hit my minimum thinking Id make it up tomorrow... but, tomorrow never came. I quickly fell into a routine of skimping and that led to dropping significant weight and great suffering. This is why I am such a nag to everyone about their intake. I do not want to see anyone struggle and suffer like I did. Every single day your main focus should be meeting your daily minimums of calories and water intake.

As far as pain goes, make sure you relay all this to your oncologist. You do not want to suffer in pain and not say something. Being in pain is actually unhealthy for a patient, it makes everything so much more difficult than it has to be. Your doc can give you pain meds. They can also set you up to get extra hydration in the chemo lab if you are not taking in at least 48 oz of water every single day. All it takes is a prescription from your doc. Your doc can also give you a prescription for magic mouthwash which could be one of several formulas. I had lidocain, malox and benedryl which worked very well to temporarily numb my mouth. Magic mouthwash can help you eat or maybe even for the times you need to hold your mouth guard. I would ask your doc about it and if they think it would help you not be so uncomfortable holding the mouth guard during rads.

Hang in there! Take it day by day and before you know it you will be finished.