Thanks everyone for your advise. It's really reassuring to know this site and all of you are here. I'm sure once his treatment begins I will be on here all of the time asking many, many questions. I've already learnt alot from this site and am about to learn alot more from the reality of our situation. Luckily Steve isn't uneasy with any tests. So far he has gone through everything without an ounce of complaint. Sometimes though I think he is too quiet. His speech now is very minimal due to the pain and communication is hard. I think that's probably the worst thing about SCC. It's like there's an invisible wall around him that I just can't penetrate. He's never been a big talker about his feelings and now he can't. I have no idea how he feels inside, whether he is sad, scared, angry. He keeps it inside too much. I suppose with time he will let me know how he feels and I just have to wait patiently for that moment. Does anyone have any tips on communication. We are using pen and paper alot now plus we have our own version of sign language. I'd really be interested to know what worked for other people though as it's getting frustrating for both of us.