My husband was diagnosed the first of April with Oral cancer. He has a node on the right side of his neck and on his right base of his tongue. His TNM rating is T2, N1, M0 and he tested HPV positive. His cancer is considered stage 1 since he is HPV positive. We were told that HPV positive was a good thing and normally reacts well to treatment. His treatment plan called for 6 weeks of Chemo(Taxol) and 7 weeks radiation. They put him on Taxol because my husband has kidney issues and the oncologist said that Taxol would do less damage to kidneys. He started treatment on April 21. He was doing good until after his 2nd week of treatment. He started getting really painful mouth sores. I found this website and saw where Miracle mouthwash helped a lot of people. My husband asked the radiologist about it and they prescribed him some. He started using that on May 4th and he was also doing the water and baking soda rinse. I also got him some Manuka honey(found that on this website also). I also started him on a soft diet (soups and such). He wasn't real diligent about doing the mouthwash, rinse or honey 3 times a day but he did do them some. By Thurs May 7th the sores got so bad that he couldn't eat any food was having trouble getting down liquids. We went in to see the radiologist on Friday, May 8th and told him what was going on. He asked if he was taking the miracle mouthwash and Gary said that he was rinsing his mouth with it for 1 -2 minutes and then spitting it out. The doctor said asked why he was spitting it out and said that he had told him to swallow it. The thing is there were no instructions on the bottle of miracle mouthwash of how to use it, it just told the amount to take. During the visit he never looked in his mouth. He went and got fluids that day since he was dehydrated. He felt better after the fluids but he still wasn't able to get any food down and very little liquids. On Sunday May 9th we went to ER, they gave him fluids but his blood pressure was really low and his heart rate was out of whack(he has AFIB) so they put him in ICU until they got his heart rate under control. The speech therapist has worked with him on his swallowing and they have been giving him miracle mouthwash and he is able to get down some foods. He is getting a feeding tube tomorrow(May 15th) and should be coming home tomorrow afternoon or Saturday.

The radiologist is now saying that my husband has had a serious reaction to the chemo and that is why the sores were so bad. The new plan is to stop the chemo and continue with the radiation treatments. They have also upped the dosage of the pain meds. They want him to come in on Monday to start the treatments back up. His last radiation was on May 6th and last chemo was May 5th. The good news is the node on his neck has gone down 70 - 80%!

We know he needs to get back into treatment but we haven't been that happy with the radiologist so we were considering getting a second opinion. In hindsight we realize we should have gotten a second opinion before starting treatment but both felt rushed and pressured into signing the papers and starting treatment right away.

We were thinking about getting s Cancer Treatment Centers of America here in Newnan, GA. Has anyone used them and if so, what is your opinion of them?/

Should we tell our current doctor that we are getting a second opinion? Has anyone else switched doctors in the middle of treatment?

My husband is on Medicare. Does anyone know if Medicare has an issue with switching during treatment?

Has anyone stopped treatment in the middle and then started back up again after a few weeks? Are there downsides with doing this?

Is there a way to find out who are the best rated radiologists for oral cancer in my area?