Hi Heather, Seth and Michael, Hang in there. All of you. This too shall pass.

I am concerned that with all the bad reactions he is having otherwise to Cisplatinum, his blood cell count may also be low. How is he doing with that? I had pretty bad nausea with cisplatin, and some gag reflex nausea too, but not nearly the problems Michael is having, but it turned out the biggest issue was the cispatinum pushed my WBC so low (to the point of neutropenia)that my second treatment was delayed almost a week and my third would have been delayed at least two weeks--at which point (raidation had ended a week and 1/2 before) both the rad oncologist adn medical oncologist agreed it was not worth doing (especially since I was just recovering from a fever from some unknown infection at that point).

So, like Gary who often posts here, I only ended up with two chemo treatments though I was supposed to have three. I'm not too worried about this, but that's in part because I had a stage II cancer and the chemo recommendation that I followed was thought to be (at least on this side of the Atlantic), super-aggressive treatment for a stage II to begin with.

In Michael's case, I would think it's much more important he get three chemo treatmetns so the chemo can keep acting as a radiosensitizer and he will get himself the max. benefit from radiation. So what Gail said, I second. Talk to his medical oncologist about what Plan B would be.

You all are in my thoughts.

Nelie