Hi Melissa and Amber --

My husband's ENT surgeon herself had a head/neck cancer when she was 19, not much older than your daughter (this was about 18 years ago). She was treated with the old-fashioned cobalt radiation at Hopkins. It was very hard, in those days there were no PEG tubes, it was "swallow or starve" so she swallowed, had to gargle with lidocaine beforehand. None of the pain treatments of the time worked very well, she even tried marijuana. She came out free of cancer, but with dry mouth and some trismus but this has improved a lot over the years.

However -- the cancer was gone. Because of her experience, she went on to medical school at Hopkins and entered the field of otolaryngology. She treats a lot of head/neck cancer patients, and diagnosed my husband's tonsillar cancer, and also, did his surgery. We always take her advice very seriously as she has been through the war herself! She beat the disease and has gone on to a normal life -- and so can your daughter.

Be strong,
Gail