Hi Ellen,

Sorry to hear that your husband has had such a difficult time with his treatments.

Most people have PEG tubes but TPN does give him nutition so at least it's being addressed.

We had to cancel our 25th wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii so I understand how disappointed your husband is to lose out on going to St. Andrews. The important thing is to get through this period.

We were told that recovery would be at least 6 months after radiation and chemo ended and more like 9-12 months until your body really recovered. 7 weeks is still the acute phase where the effects of the radiation and chemo are active.

The only thing I would add is that it sounds like he has a fairly severe trismus, which is the inability to open his mouth. There's good information on this site if you do a search. Jack developed that following his surgery and the radiation intensified it. He has been using a therabite jaw exerciser to do gentle stretching. If the trismus is not addressed it will get worse and make his oral hygeine care more difficult. I know he has a lot going on but I would talk to the doctors about stretching exercises.

Hang in there.
Regards JoAnne