Nelie, I'll try to be brief. Re: Radiating one or both sides of the neck. I would pursue both sides as this disease is very aggressive and there is often only one chance to kill it. I prefer to use every possible means to get it the first time and not leave any chance that the disease you already know about comes back because you didn't do everything possible to kill it and get it out of your body.

On the subject of day-to-day stuff, there are many tidbits of information available on this forum. Doing searches for specific questions or issues can help to answer a lot of questions. Of course, you can always ask here and someone will have an answer. Generally, radiation is cumulative in its effect and is easy in the beginning but gets more difficult as you proceed. I found the chemo to be very easy to tolerate. I had a feeding tube and unconditionally recommend it to all patients. In fact, I think it should be mandatory. However, there are a lot of patients here on this forum who didn't have a peg and made it through without one. Hydration and nutrition is critical to recovery and the peg helps that considerably. I lost my voice and the ability to swallow my own saliva due to the rad treatment. I also had oozing sores on my neck for weeks from the rad. There are some on the forum, though, that didn't have either issue. We are all different and react to the treatment differently. Try to bulk up with eating before rad/chemo as I lost 25% of my body weight (50 pounds) even with a peg.

Hopefully, this will help a little. Suggest you take it one day at a time. You can get through this. Many have and look back on the experience with a certain amount of laughter. A positive attitude is one of the best things you can bring to the party. Good luck and you will be in my thoughts.