Elizabeth, Gary makes a good point that much of what you read here is about the problems some patients experience. I had radiation to both sides, 37 treatments, and was able to continue regular things around the house, such as laundry and preparing meals for my husband. I do not work, and frankly, would not have had the energy to for about the last two weeks of treatment and for three weeks after that. I also had chemo but was not sick. I had mouth sores and took my nutrition, medications, and water through a PEG tube, which terrified me until I awoke with it and found out it is not a big deal. I am no spring chicken but I was back to running and my active social life five weeks after the end of treatment, so the one month for every week of treatment healing schedule is not necessarily set in stone. I was not completely healed, but my energy had completely returned. The only thing I could not have done by myself easily is change the dressings on my neck, which burned much worse than anyone else seems to have experienced. I did not suffer pain from this as I was given very good drugs. Depending upon the ages of your children, they may be able to be a great help to you. Bottom line, you need to be very aggressive in your treatment, but remember that I, who had a stage IV tumor with involved nodes, expected some kind of evil torture, and actually had a pretty good time because of the really terrific people who worked so hard treating me. Cindy is correct that you can and will do this, and Brian makes an excellent point that fear will not help you at all. If you can step back and see the big picture, a few weeks out of your life is a very small part of it, and the payoff is priceless.