Barb, I guess since you are caught at stage 1, you shouldn't be receiving the maximum dose. I was scheduled for 42 treatments and towards the end, I was given 6 more as the boost because my doctors didn't want to miss anything and they thought my body could stand it. Well the journey was really tough but as far as I remember, I was still OK until week 5 when I could no longer swallow or talk clearly. The pain was never too much for me and my doctor said maybe it was because I kept on taking pain killers every day even though I didn't feel the pain. But the constipation was a big problem.
Gary, I also had the fish scales on my face for a few hours after treatment and on the first few days, I dare not look up feeling very embarrassed in case passers-by caught my sight. Then my sister-in-law told me not to feel ashamed of myself. I should look up telling everybody that I was a cancer fighter and I could make it through. So here I am, nearly 4 years after treatment with almost everything going back to normal. Don't worry, Barb, you can certainly win the battle.

Karen