Margaret,

I know you probably hate my responses but...

Dan is in a war right now and he just needs to pour that stuff down as fast as he can. His taste is probably pretty shot right now and will be for many months to come so don't worry about frills, this is WAR. Tell him to open the can and open his mouth and let gravity do it's thing. If he's worried about subtle tastes then he ain't as bad off as most of us were. It got so bad for me that I would drag myself out of bed, open a room temp VHC, drink it fast and then hold my mouth closed with my hand while standing over the sink and prey that it would stay down. Taste was the farthest thing from my mind.

Re the post Tx pain. I'm sure you've been told it's an individual thing and it's true. He will recover when he does but it will most likely be MUCH slower than he wants. Even once he walks out of that tunnel he will be surprised that one day he will feel better and the next day he will feel worse. That scenario may last for months. Look, I think by comparison I recovered quicker than a lot, but it really wasn't until my 8th or 9th month that normal started to really return.

I tried from your first e mail to warn you and Dan and I tried to paint as ugly a picture as I could to get you to understand that this is not the flu or a bad cold. This is a deadly cancer that does kill even with the vastly improved Txs we get today. Please go with the flow and don't expect miracles.