Hi jj,

I agree with Gary, Debbie, Joanna and Karen, I would request radiation to give yourself the best shot at killing any remaining cancer cells.

I had IMRT and I still have saliva, I also had no bad side effects from the radiation. From what Brian and others have told me this is rare.

I had a PEG tube put in about a week prior to surgery. It's no big deal. I fed myself thru the PEG using a 2 ounce syringe and I was given Jevity to feed myself. I mixed in a package of carnation Instant Milk to increase my caloric intake. I was 150 lbs prior to cancer and dropped to 121 lbs in 10 days following surgery. I gained it all back in about 6 weeks. It has 250 calories per can and all the vitimans you need. You will need to input at least
8 cans per day as your body consumes allot of your intake to heal. I was inputting about 2800 calories per day. Remember to flush your PEG tube after every feeding. I used Gatorade 8oz. followed by a water flush of at least 6oz. It only took me about 15 minutes to eat three times per day. I crushed my meds and mixed them with the food or dissolved them in warm water and used the syringe to input through the PEG. You will also want to input at least 60 oz. of water daily. Check with your nutritionest she will guide you on what you need. My insurance paid for all the Jevity and syringes. They will if you can't eat orrally for awhile. For me I just had the tube removed last week, It was in for 7 months.

As far as the therabite device I will attach a photo of one and send it to your email address. They are around $500.00 and my insurance company paid for this also.
As part of your team of Doctors you shoud request physical therapy for your speech, your mouth opening if restricted and a nutritionest. I had to ask my ENT for a therabite device and had to ask for the therapy. I felt let down by him by having to find out all the extra's needed through this forum and not him.
You seem to have a real good attitude about your treatment and that will carry you a long way. I had allot of peaks and valley's during my journey and the help and sharing of so many members of this forum got me through to the end of treatment.

I wish you nothing but the best and I will be praying for a full recovery for you.

Your Friend, Dan Bogan
P.S Excuse my spelling!!!!