Deb - no apologies on "hijacking" - I enjoy the little tangents that spin off :-)

Rick - nice to meet you here. I responded to your post on the Introduce Yourself forum.

Eileen - we are not at a major cancer center. There is a CCC (on the list) at UAB in Birmingham, about an hour and 1/2 from here. All of our docs were trained at the med school there. Our cancer center is large (50 bed chemo area), everything on site (pharmacy, dietician, social work, etc.) but it is not one of the "top spots" and our RO and MO are not head and neck specialists.

This process started for us with a initial dx from FNA and exam of a benign tumor. We found a local UAB ENT Surgeon with a great reputation for the surgery. During surgery he found "all the bad stuff". Things just moved on crazily from there. We did alot of research and talked to lots of people and came to the realization that the treatment protocol was going to be the same here. So we decided it would be better to stay here. We own a business that is our livelihood and Dan is the backbone of it. We also have 2 children (12 & 3). Sitting here now as Monday morning QB it's easy for me now to see why we should have "sucked it up" and gone to Birmingham. But we didn't so now I have to get my tx info, etc. here on the board. If, God forbid, this tx doesn't work or if he has a recurannce we will go initially to Birmingham and then possibly on to somewhere else from there. Our MO was in Clinical Trials at UAB and he is the clinical trials director here in Montgomery - he looked into this for us and currently there was not anything of benefit to Dan. I have made a friend online, but off-post who had salivary gland cancer - a little different type and stage than Dan, but salivary cancer. She is in Seattle and I believe treated at the Center there which is supposed to be top notch. Her doc told her no Salagen during tx because it would thinken the mucous too much. She has been taking it post tx, but not during. In Dan's case we need to weigh his choking and not sleeping vs dry mouth. So far he doesn't have a big problem with the dry mouth, but does with the mucous - so the Salagen goes. That may change as things evolve. I have talked with Dan at lenght re: the suction machine and the baking soda, etc. Even though I am quite a take-charge caregiver and person by nature - everything is still ultimately his decision and right now he does not want to do either...

Thanks guys for your continued support and information. This is such a wonderful place to be.