Hi Joe! Welcome to the forum. Your Dx and Tx sound much like mine. I am three years out and doing great. I had tons of chemo and then chemo with IMRT - lots of both. No surgery. Between the tumor and the radiation, I lost my ability to swallow much, so I live by my peg tube.

Many here believe pegs to be a cruch and unneeded. I disagree. I believe that your general nutrition DURING treatment - particularly the calories you get and the water you consume - have a HUGE impact on how well you heal, how quickly you heal and whether or not you heal. Give that peg tube some serious consideration - not just to save you from swallowing, but to assure that you can consume sufficient calories and water to promote your recovery.

And don't wait till you NEED a peg (throat in ruins), because pegs can be hard to place through such throats. Allow me to state the obvious: our cancer is NOT a weight loss opportunity. You will need 2500 to 3500 calories per day to survive the treatment and recover.

Not eating does NOT force your body to burn fat - it usually causes the slow destruction of muscle. Too few calories means you experience more pain, more tx symptoms, more depression, more infections, more stiffness, more lethargy, etc. Push calories way UP during tx. Triple the amount of water you drink - it cuts the symptoms in half - all of them. Lose weight later. Be strong, Tom