Susan,

Please add a Signature Line so we can all see the Dx and progress when we respond to your posts.

I'm not a rad expert by any means but when I said standard that means very aggressive in the OC treatment arena. because it is supposed to be our lifetime maximum to that area. That's why we are sometimes told that we can not be re radiated if the cancer comes back.

Re the surgery part, it depends on where the cancer is and how large it is. In my case Moffitt said that my nodes were small and that the radiation should kill the cancer so they wanted to wait until post rad to see if surgery might be necessary. I had 3 previous cancer docs that wanted to do anything from a Radical ND to a partial ND but I'm glad I ended up at a CCC and avoided what would have been unnecessary surgery.

Hi David, I was just waiting until Friday to add the signature line.

They said that it's a T2 tumor and that it spread to the nodes on the same side. That was confirmed by biopsy. The nodes on that side were not large. There is a very small lump on the other side. It didn't show on the MRI, "something showed" on the PET. They didn't think it crossed the midline and that the lump might be malignant or might be a cyst.

The MD from Sloan also said it was on the borderline of oral and base. Because of the nodes they decided to treat it as base. I thought that was a bit odd.

Because of the location and size he felt radiation would do it. Of course, he said surgery was an option ,if needed but he didn't see that as the case as of now.

I wanted to ask a bit more about the oral/base thing. At the time of the visit there was some question if it was SCC or not(it is) and we got caught up in that. Of course, more questions came to mind on the ride home.

We see the radiologist Friday, the oncologist next week Thursday. Feels a bit slow moving to me but when I asked the scheduling person they said the MD alerts them if it needs to "move faster" and didn't in our case. They also said they don't let it go any longer than 6 weeks from date of biopsy to treatment. We are still in that time period.

andy was in treatment 3 weeks from diagnosis. BUT...he did 3 rounds of chemo first...then IMRT/CHEMO...so he did not have to get dental work or have the PEG before treatment started.

Susan said "the scheduling person they said the MD alerts them if it needs to "move faster" and didn't in our case.

What MD are you talking about?

I was referring to the Oral Surgeon from Sloan. He has been part of their Head and Neck dept for a long time and was strongly recommended by two MDs we respect. He will be the MD managing the case. We both got a very good feeling from him.

3 weeks is amazing. It felt like we moved very fast from discovering it, through the various tests to getting to Sloan.
But waiting a week and then another week is a bit nerve wracking. On the other hand, Dave is using this time to try and fatten up.
It's hard though because it's not easy for him to eat.

It will remain hard to eat after too. After all of this time I have to force feed myself and eat thru the pain. If I didn't I would have to have a tube. I am back up to 170 but still 50 lbs under my normal weight. Feed that man.

Jim, I had to laugh when you said"feed that man." I'm trying. I'm trying. I don't want to be a pain and nag but he's so skinny to start with I just know it will help if he puts weight on.

He is a guy that loves food and really appreciates a good meal. It's just hard to eat with the sore in his mouth. Can't even imagine what will happen with the radiation since so many folks talk about mouth sores after radiation.

We are trying different things to make it more comfortable to eat but nothing that has worked great so far.
He's drinking so much carnation 560 that I think he wants to barf just looking at it...but he forges on...