Hi, Traci,

I think you've added more information about your husband's diagnosis and treatment since your first posting. It looks like he had induction chemo (taxotere, cisplatin, and 5Fu) before he even began the combo radition/chemo. I'm amazed that he got through that and then this far without a feeding tube. My husband had that as well and by the time he got to the combo RT with chemo (which is the point at which most are just starting treatment) he already had mouth sores, had lost a lot of weight and was somewhat depleted. That's a lot of months of treatment and I imagine you're both exhausted. My husband and I were both barely able to get to the treatments by the end. I hope you get through the next week- you're so close to being finished and I'm sure you both want to think that you did everything you could to beat this. I wish that Lew could reframe how he views having a feeding tube and view it as a way to actually control one's hydration, nutrition, and pain meds. I think it would be pretty unusual for someone to go through induction chemo (for 6-7 weeks) and then through 7 more weeks of radiation/chemo and NOT have a feeding tube. My recollection of the folks on this board that made it through without a feeding tube is that they had 7 weeks of chemo/rad without induction chemo.

That's unbelievable (in a terrible way) that three family members have had oral cancer in the past year. My thoughts are with you and I hope you'll let us know when you get through the final week of treatment.

Sophie