I would definately NOT be in the "no pain no gain" school of thought. Regardless of the disease and the types of treatment, proper pain management is essential to the patient's well being through the process. The doctors should be on top of this. You don't have to "tough it out" to get through treatments. I was in really bad pain for a few days, but my treamtnet staff saw that I had enough pain meds of differnet strengths to put everything from the daily pain to the peak pain under control, and in my posession for use as it was needed. Radiation does do significant damage as a by product of freeing a person of cancer, but you shouldn't have to endure unnecessary pain in the process. Unless something is going very wrong... second opinions in the middle of treatment are hard to get. Doctors themselves are not inclined to second guess a current doctor's midterm plan.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.