Seth,

I am really sorry to hear of the difficulty you and Michaelii are experiencing. If it helps, I was at this point EXACTLY and remember my throat and mouth were so raw that when I vomitted, I screamed in pain. I ended up in the ER begging for them to just knock me out because it hurt so bad when that acid came up. I couldn't put anything in the PEG for many weeks and ended up feeding through my port for months. My ears sounded like locusts or secadas in the summertime when I was growing up. I still experience that sometimes at night as I am winding down trying to go to sleep. I tried the Reglan and just about everything else known to man and even tried some things that were experimental.

Is Michaelii taking the amofostine (Ethyol)? I had terrible rash and fever from it and after about 3 rounds of the ER and hospitalization, they determined I was one of the many that developed an allergic reaction to it.

At this point in treatment I had two 75 mg Duragesic patches because of the pain and no matter what, don't let the pain get overwhelming or it just makes things worse.

The benefit of the chemo is that it helps the effectivity of the radiation. I vividly remember being totally zonked before the last round of chemo and the pharmacist was in the hall outside of my room delivering it to the nurse. Suddenly, I could hear clearly as if they were yelling..."let's go ahead and give it to him, I don't think it will kill him..." I was scared sh*tless but went through with it. 3 weeks later I felt it was worth it when I got the news "cancer-free".

Hang in there, Seth, this is rough, especially for the wonderful people that are by our side through it all.

Ed