Warren,

Regarding your question about how quickly you might lose taste and experience fatigue -- as you know, there's a range of responses among different patients, but since I was also in my 30's at the time and otherwise in good health, I thought I'd weigh in.

I had radiation without chemo (it sounds like that's what you're having as well). The first 2 weeks or so went pretty well -- by the end of the second week I had slight amounts of change in taste sensations, but not much in terms of real mouth pain. What I remember about fatigue at that stage was this: I had a chance to play in two different golf outings on the same day, and I was fine for the first 18 holes but didn't have enough strength to play the second 18 (and I was angry at myself for not being able to push through it)! It was around the third week when my taste buds got noticeably worse, and greater levels of pain and fatigue set in. The effects that, up to that point, had been creeping up on me, suddenly seemed to hit like a hammer.

Take the best advantage of every day that still feels close to normal -- eat as well as you can for as long as you can to try to keep up your strength.

Cathy