Hi Len:

Welcome to OCF and the company of friends. You have a long and tedious road ahead but one that has been well travelled by many brave people here and the partners and family members who walk along with them. You have found the best place for sage advice, practical tips, and a safe haven to vent.

Brian's post above offers the nuts and bolts of what you need to take in the first phsae of treatment. Great idea to save it because that advice got most of us through the first big hurdles in the process.

Just to catch you up, at this time last year, my fiance, Dave had just had surgery for a tonsil lesion followed by flap reconstruction. Just about this time, he also got a PEG tube and was a couple of weeks into radiation. The treatment is hell and feels endless, but now, one year later, he is eating and talking well, feeling stronger except for residual low energy days, and is dealing with processing the blur of the last several months. Focus on getting through today but keep your eye on the big prize-treatment does end and life does resume.

As Oprah says (and you'll hear it as you watch endlessly): "You go, girl" Okay, so she has a lot of female guests but you get the picture!

Best.

Kim