Thank you Kirk. I am going to email the radiation oncologist from Dana Farber and ask him what the risks are, as he sees it, if they do not radiate the lymph nodes on both sides and I'm going to ask my radiation oncologist here to explain to me again why he thinks it's OK to do that. As I said, he is a very experienced radiation oncologist as well from one of the 21 cancer care centers, so I do think his informed opinion is worth something.

I also need to ask more about the PEG tube. At Dana Farber they said it was something they would only require if I was doing rad along with chemo (which it looks like I won't be able to do because I have this other surgical incision still healing from infection).

Fortunately I was already "bulked up" before I was diagnosed. It was right after the holidays and I wsa actually at my heaviest weight ever and wondering how I would ever manage to lose 40-50 pds. Heh. Little did I know. I've already lost about 25 pds since then between the initial anxiety over two cancer diagnoses, two tongue surgeries and the post surgery infection from the breast surgery. If I lose another 50 from here I'll be looking very skinny but I think I would still be a little above the technical "underweight" line. What a way to go on a diet, huh?

But I am hoping I won't lose that much--mainly because I want to recover from the radiation as quickly as possible and I'm sure that must happen faster when you keep up your hydration and nutrition up all the way through. That's why I want a PEG. The thing is, after I recover enough from this rad. treatment I still need to have 6 weeks radiation for the breast and I'm *hoping* that can happen before my fall semester starts (mid August), which means it would need to start around the first of July, which will be about 6 weeks after this rad. treatment ends.

From what I'm reading here about how long it takes people to recover, that goal may be pushing it. But I figure having those goals and an optimistic attitude might help me through--it will certainly make me more careful about trying to staying well-nourished anyway.

Thanks for the encouragement, keeping me in your thoughts, and the reminder to take it one day at a time. I'm sure I'll need that along the way too!