Chemo is not given in a shot form. Its given slowly, over several hours with meds given before and after to help make it easier to tolerate. Hair is not always lost. I didnt lose mine. Cheryl is correct....chemo alone will NOT[b][/b] cure her.

Here is a link to info about treatments. Please check out the main OCF pages, there is an incredible amount of important info there. Please take the time to go thru this. It could make a huge difference in how she is treated. You both must become advocates for her!
Main OCF pages, TREATMENTS

Good luck with the second opinion Alz! and do something nice for yourself and her - I actually does help your mind set to get away a bit.

Also I must apologize I offended one of our members when you posted originally about your dr. Suggesting chemo without confirmation of a recurrence. I agreed and thought he was being proactive. I was basing this on the assumption that the dr. Suspected very heavily that it was a recurrence and that his suggestion of a round of chemo was meant to possibly be prophylactic in nature. By no means do I believe chemo I harmless - it does have many side effects that are unpleasant, can cause severe reactions in people, and doesn't cure tongue cancer - so I believe a dr generally wouldn't suggest it without believing I has some actual purpose (though admittedly some drs do questionable stuff) . So to anyone new reading this - it was an opinion only, and based solely on this particular case - everyone is different and most importantly a good medical professional with experience in this type of cancer generally knows best. If you have any concerns a second opinion from another qualified dr shoud be obtained. We all come with our own valuable set of experiences and can give advice and suggestions on what to ask or where to educatie yourself about this disease - so that you are informed and can advocate for yourself but realistically - we are a forum here to help but not here to offer advice as medical professionals. (though some do a background in medicine) anyway sorry if I lead anyone astray - Alz best of luck to you.

Hi Alz and Ida,

Good idea to get away and get your thoughts together.

I can possibly help with what to expect from chemotherapy. Alex and I went through 4 cycles of chemotherapy in 2010. However, different drugs and drug combinations have different effects and whilst most of them cause nausea and vomiting, there are different things you will need to do depending on the drugs they give you. Until we know exactly which drugs are planned for Ida we can't really give you any specific assistance.

When you get to your next appointment (or maybe phone or email your oncologist), ask the doctors to write down the names of the drugs and then you can post them here.

There isn't a lot you can do to prepare anyway, other than to keep the weight up, eat favourite things now because chemo may take away the appetite and make some things taste wrong.

Alex was terrified on his first day of chemo (as was I - even though I knew the procedures and how it all worked). Because Alex had 3 chemo drugs, one of which needed stacks of fluid with it, the infusions ran for hours so he was given a bed and had an overnight stay. When I went to pick him up the next morning, he announced he felt "like a box of birds" and looked as good as I had seen him in months. The fear and stress of not knowing what was going to happen had left him, and the knowledge that we were finally doing something to fight made him feel very positive. The nurses also fed a lot of fluids into him via the drip which also would have made him feel better .

We found that week one of the cycle was ok (although nausea sometimes happened during this time), week 2 was feeling exhausted and weak and week 3 was a daily recovery to feeling human again. Then it started all over again... This may be different in your case though and is dependent on the drugs and doses they give you as well as how far apart the cyles are. I think I read somewhere that you think your cycles may be 4 weeks apart?

Remember too that Alex was having chemo as his very first therapy as a newly diagnosed patient. Your treatment may end up being completely different from Alex's

Anyway, keep us posted and we will support you whatever happens with whatever you need

Karen

Hello all.. I know I have 2 postings .. actually this belongs to Ida and she's taking a break from staring the screen (although we are both net freaks since we are 16 .. that's how we met ).. online couples!..

Our 2nd opinion gives us much much more clearer picture... on how we should go ahead with this. IT is still can be cured... with localized tumor of 1.9cm and scans are cleared for nodes.

Lets see what new surgeon will tell us. Sometimes its not good when the surgeon (the first one we had) became closed people to us. I think it made him difficult to cut us? I don;t know.. what I know is we need to act fast while it is small..

I love you guys all.. seriously not kidding...

HUGGGGGGGSS!!!!

Im happy to hear that the recurrence has been caught while its in the early stages. Hopefully it will be a quick surgery with not much tissue removed. Then she can recover and move on. Best wishes with everything!

Glad you got that second opinion! Things should get a whole lot better for Ida and you from now on!

We definitely get bonded on here, that's for sure!! Glad for the second opinion. Will watch for the continuing story!
Kathy

Terrific on the second opinion! Act quickly. Mine was a little smaller but so far I am doing fine since treatment. Take care and good luck.

Hey guys.. met the surgeon today and he will accept our case!.. Good thing was he is a double doctor kinda thing, head and neck cancer surgeon,plastic surgeon and dentist as well.. how lucky...

So we did teeth X Ray today to plan the surgery. Since she had radiation, doctor will do via neck instead the jaw bone. So we will see what will happened.

Ida is scheduled for a PET Scan tomorrow just to make sure it hasn't spread although her MRI scans showed that there's no nodes involved.

Wish us luck and I will update as we go on this bumpy ride.. !

Hugs!

AL

That's great so glad to hear you found someone good. Good luck with everything.