Hi Elaine,

Welcome to the board. We are glad you are here.

Sounds like I went through something similar to your husband but I had surgery first then radiation.

If the swelling is not going down from the biopsies, you need to work with your doctor(s) to get that under control before they start radiation.

The single most important item in fighting cancer and it's treatment is keeping your nutrition up. I was ingesting (I ended up only being able to use the PEG since I could not swallow) 7 cans of ensure a day with an equal amount of water after every can. I spaced those feedings out to about every 3 hours of the day. It provided enough energy to get through the treatments, but I still lost 45lbs over the whole span of 2 months of radiation. Ask your doctor if this will work for your husband.

I am sorry to inform you that if nutrition is a problem this early, it has the potential of getting worse before it gets better. Not trying to be negative, but rather realistic and driving my point home that nutrition is very important to completing the treatments successfully.

Good luck and fight hard.

As always if you have any questions, ask us.

Jim