Hi Little Sister,
I read article in SPOHNC yesterday about healing and I think it might help you brother. One of the things it stated to help the healing is concentrate on the parts of you that are working, not the ones that aren't. For people with H&N cancer, this is the legs. Buy a pedometer. Go out and walk. Initial goal is 5000 steps a day. When you reach that, try to increase it by a 1000 each week until you reach 10,000. That sounds like about 5 miles to me which is a lot. It also stated that a bedridden person loses 1.5-2% of his muscle in the first two weeks and can lose as much as 40-50% in 6 or more weeks. That's scary.

When I had cancer the first time, I bacially went to rad, PT and home to bed not because I was or tired, I was just bored and very cold all the time and bed was the only place I could get warm. Had I done some exercise, maybe I wouldn't have been so cold, but the thought didn't occur to me. I decided to sleep through treatments and lost a lot of muscle even though I only lost 4 lbs. Second time round, I only had surgery, so did walk and keep active and didn't have the muscle loss problem.

For your brother who is a cop and used to being very active, I would think getting out in the great out of doors doing something, walking, gardening, fishing, golfing, whatever he likes to do would help his depression and him heal better. You don't need to kill yourself exercising, just take a breeze around the block and smell the roses, talk to a few neighbors and get some fresh air. I just noticed where you live and guess for a while he will be making snowmen, but you get the idea. Concentrate on what is working. Exercise is supposed to improve the immune system. Hope that helps.

Take care,
Eileen