Pamela
I just got releases from the recovery room from surgery but I had to post with all due respect to your chemo doc, he qis not qualified to evaluate your husband' s radiation tx plan. In fact, he is biased as everyone knows that for base of tongue cancer, it is the radiation which cures you. Chemo plays an important but secondary role. I am surprised he can eve get malpractice insurance with advice like that. Trust York radiologist. Trust me you will never forgive yourself if your husband has his cancer return because usband wiof not getting enough radiation ask yor radiologist the total number of grays or
GY. In the tx. It should be 72 to 77.
Trust me
Charm

Hi Pamela,
I agree with Charm. If you read my signature you will see that Kevin had 60tx over the 6 week time frame. We went 2x a day. Let your husband's RO make those decisions. You want to hit this hard the first time around, so maybe, you can avoid a round 2. Sounds like you were on the right track. Hopefully they will let you stay there.
Keep in touch,
Kathy

Pamela

My diagnosis is similar to your husbands. tumor in tonsil 4cm
left lymphnode 2. I have completed 13 of 35 RT and I have second of 3 chemo cisplatin on 4/3. (every 3 weeks) Diagnosis is similar but treatment not so much.
The advice you received in an eatlier post is very good.
Hope all goes well. Just have to get through it.

Thank you all for your comments, particularly CHARM just out of recovery. We are just wondering why my husband's RO wants to give him 42 treatments and not the standard 33-38? RO said that this is accelerated treatment and actually wanted to treat my husband twice a day with 240 rads per day. Of course we want the cancer completely gone but this more aggressive method causes more swallowing problems and makes the side effects worse. I have heard from others who have been treated by this doc that he does tend to "over radiate" and he's the only community RO we have here. So that's why we are scared. When we mentioned it to him he just shrugged and told us he knows best (very arrogant). My husband is getting check up with the Hopkins surgeon during his 6th week of therapy so we will hopefully see how things have progressed then. We SHOULD have got a second opinion from another RO out of our area. It's enough to deal with the cancer but to have to deal with doctor's egos is too much. Sorry to vent. Hope husband's RO isn't a member of this site he'll probably fry us both!!! LOL. At least I laughed.

Pamela

When I posted, I had not slept in over 46 hours and was still groggy from the surgery and had just gotten another morphine shot, so please excuse all the typos.
First of all, ask hot shot rad doc to use Grays, Only old fashioned out of date people use Rads, So it is possible that this doctor does over radiate if he is using a 1975 standard from last century Here is a quick primer
[quote]The adoption of the gray by the 15th CGPM in 1975 as the unit of measure of the absorption of ionising radiation, specific energy absorption in 1975 was the culmination of over half a century of work, both in the understanding of the nature of ionising radiation and in the refinement of measuring techniques.The gray supersedes the rad , an older unit of radiation dose. In some documents the rad is still used; the gray is 100 times larger. To convert rads to grays, multiply by 0.01. To convert grays to rads, multiply by 100.[/quote]
At the very least, take him down a peg by asking why he using an outdated vocabulary which is usually a sign of not being on top of new developments and displays an dangerous unwillingness to learn new things.
Again, if he pushing more than 77 Grays total, your chemo doctor might be quite right.
Charm

Thank you. I would so enjoy taking him down a peg or two! When we see him again next Tuesday I will certainly ask that question. Yeah. Thanks again!
I do hope you are feeling better now.
This site is terrific. I'm learning so much and find it a great comfort.
Pamela

Thanks Christine, I've made my signature. And thanks for your comments. I'm so thankful to have this site.
Pamela