Hi, Michelle,

I can imagine how overwhelmed you must feel and some of your treatment is undefined at this point (until the scans) so it is even difficult to get a good sense of what you and Dan will be going through. My husband's treatment/diagnosis was different but I can respond to one or two things based on our experience and the experience of many on this board. 6) peg tube- we got it prior to treatment and were very glad we did so. Not only does it provide basic nutrition but hydration. We put lots of extra water and liquids in the tube and my husband never had to be treated for dehydration. One way I look at it is that the tube allows you to get the liquid and nutrition you need and if you are able to eat throughout treatment- you can eat things that sound good and that you can get down (and not worry about calories) as what you can eat by mouth is unlikely to provide all of the nutrition you need. 8) we got the therabyte but my husband had trismus when he began treatment (could not fully open mouth). It is very quick and easy to use. We waited to get scripts such as diflucan until he needed it (right away in his case due to the types of chemo he was given during induction chemo). I know that there were times that the last thing I wanted to do was to wait for a script and I had difficulty getting some scripts filled right away at regular pharmacies (no problems at all at the cancer center pharmacy) so you may want to do some in advance. I think that the most important and helpful thing I can suggest to you given that you have young children and a business, is that you need to ask everyone who offers to help to actually do something. People really want to help and they need to help you in ways that you may not be used to getting help. My daughter is older than your children but I was working full-time and needed to take over many of the things that my husband had done. He had lots of side effects from treatment and for many weeks could do very little for himself. Lots of friends brought meals (focusing on things my husband could eat) and some friends drove him to radiation and chemo. Other friends picked up prescriptions and drug store items. I needed all of the help I could get and yet I could barely get through the day for two months in terms of energy. Another thing that helped was to literally keep a calendar of what we had to do on what days but then to just put one foot in front of the other and take one day at a time and expect the unexpected.

Once you learn more about the chemo drugs you will be getting- I will offer our experience if it fits.

My thoughts are with you- Sophie