Hi Ed --

That reminds me of Barry's ENT surgeon's experience. Recall she had HNC about 18 years ago, received cobalt radiation at Hopkins, they didn't have gastric tubes then, it was swallow or starve. She was 19 at the time. She told us she used to gargle with 2% lidocaine and still cried every time she had to eat. A friend recommended pot as a pain reliever. She used it and said she was "stoned out her mind" for three days (must have been some good s--t). No pain at all. However she recalls her mom driving her back down I-95 (from Baltimore) to their home in DC suburbs, and her screaming at the top of her lungs, "SLOW DOWN!! Everything's going TOO FAST!!" and her mother calmly replying, "I"m already driving 45 in a 65-mph zone, how much slower do you want...?"

Anyway when we saw her just before Barry started treatment she half-jokingly suggested he try pot if he had a lot of pain -- unfortunately being out of grad school for some years now I'm not exactly sure how to score any weed now Actually, he is in last 2 days of treatment and his throat is pretty darn sore so he also recalled our surgeon's advice...wonder if it would work better than the oxycodone which is OK for the pain but causes him major constipation and some gastric reflux.

Gail