Amber,

I can't comment on the chemo part of your question since I had surgery and radiation without chemo.

Regarding your question on nutrition, you're right to be concerned about keeping up your father's food intake. Different people have different responses to Ensure (I wasn't a big fan of it), but there are other alternatives as well. One high-calorie option that has been posted elsewhere on this site is the following (it has about 1300 calories):

2 cups ice cream
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 package instant breakfast
1 cup whole milk
3 TBS Ovaltine
1 TBS Malted Milk

I tried variations on this, with fruit mixed in -- also used things like oatmeal/cream of wheat, a whole assortment of baby food, applesauce, pudding, scrambled eggs -- anything that I could ingest with little or no chewing. Every meal had to go through the blender.

Have his doctors told him whether they plan to use a PEG tube for feeding? Some of us didn't have one, but others here have said they couldn't have gotten by without one, so it may be something he needs to consider.

Cathy