[quote=PaulB]Where there is life, there is hope! Never give up! Radiation was not given yet, according to the singnature. [/quote]

Hello Paul actually she was given radiation, not sure how many. It was supposed to be daily for 4 days. But I was told she had to stop for a week due to the ONE and ONLY machine not working. So I am not sure what week she is on.

Paul she started her recent post with "Almost a month after her radition and Erbitux treatment" so I assumed they already started it and just stopped when they ran out of money. That's what I based my comments on.

No problem, David. Most of my response is my own account, and current thought...fight, fight, fight. I don't think I got over the anger phase with cancer, and like to keep it like that lol.

I am so sorry Ina.
I agree with Cheryl.
Tammy

Ina,
So sorry to hear the ongoing saga with Joyce. It seems even under the best situation she is receiving care if the only rad machine breaks down, assuming for more than a day or so. Then the breaks in treatment really do not help either.

I only hope you may be able to influence the decision to focus on providing the most comfortable daily conditions for her.

I love Paul's fight as it has brought him a long way further along the war with cancer. Most would have seen each new battle with increasing weariness yet his strong will to live kept him marching forward to where he can be the king junkyard dog of OCF! My respects to Charm, I think about that dude everyday too, a warrior of the first order. Long live Charm!

I hope none of ever gets to the point where the battle is lost. I have not a clue if I would lay down my arms and have the last few minutes in as much calm as possible or go down swinging in the heat of battle. God bless none of us ever gets to that milestone in the journey as a cancer survivor.

One of the major factor here is age and advancement he had many recurrences but was able to catch them at a point where it was difficult but still treatable. In both cases Paul has an advantage. Hopefully she does okay but in truth by the sounds of it they've dithered around soo much that her treatment is a disaster in terms of any possible effect. (I mean the medical establishment - not the family) and to me it really does sound like they are simply trying to squeeze more money out of the family. Rads and chemo sounded like a marginally viable option back in the beginning but now they way they are administering it will do little or nothing. Hugs Ina ...

I'm just lucky, and had, have good doctors. My cancer was not found early. It was stage 4 tonsil, T1N2bM0, originally diagnosed with valeculla and BOT also, and so surgery was not recommended, TPF induction chemo, and Chemoradiation was. I only had 5 days IC chemo, and had no further treatment until a year and three months later due to my near deadly chemo reaction, and know, knew, that chemo alone does not kill cancer, it's only temporary, and IC lasts less than a year, if it does, so all that time cancer was left to do what it does, my mind left to wonder, no further cancer scans, and was not expected to survive anyway, never mind the cancer, and was not medically fit anyway for further treatment until I had a recurrence at 8 months, less than a year, a month after my first somewhat clear post treatment scan, and only had radiation then, and MO refused chemo, saying my body would not be able to handle it. Even after 70Gy, bilaterally, I had another recurrence about 5 months later with two nodal involved, which required a MRND, but during surgery, surgeon found everything twitsted, and shrunken from radiation, so he did a RND, taking out the neck muscle, vein, nerve. Luckly he did, because cancer was also found in the removed neck muscle. I also needed alloderm to put on the caroid artery for protection due to the scraping off the twisted, shrunken structures. Chemoradiation was suggested after by the ENT, but my MO, RO refused due them to my health. All fine, but then I had another recurrence in one of the nodes in level V, even with the neck dissection in levels ll-V, which thought odd, but there are 300 lymphs in the HN, most microscopic. The day of surgery, while in pre-op, for my 2nd dissection, a minute before the doctor came in, I found another lump in my neck in level lll. ENT was dumbfounded at first, and decided to remove It along with the other in level V. Turns out neither was a lymph node, and both were metatastic free form or roaming cancer, that could have come from anywhere, plus I had positive margins, lymphovascular and Perneural invasion, meaning cancer may likely spread vis the nerve or vein lines, in additin to the free form or roaming cancer. Further surgery was not going to be given again, chemo was going to be limited to Erbitux only, and radiation was limited only to 50Gy, so I went elsewhere. Lucky I did, cause I had another recurrence a month later, this time in the epidermal layers of the skin. I had another radical neck dissection to remove whatever they can, was left, 15Gy IORT during surgery while the neck was exposed, which is equivelrnt to 3-4 x that of IMRT, a pec flap to protect the carotid artery, which earlier alloderm had to be peeled off first, and also in order to be able to get additional radiation. About 6 weeks later, I had 5 weeks 50Gy IMRT, Erbitux, and Taxotere. Had a clear post treatment scan in Feb, like all before that, but never made it past that mark, so my PET this August is very important, and one I'll gauge matters at, not the three month post treatment scan. This was my condensed version.

That is a frickin amazing story. Honestly, I have tried to understand the entirety and chronology of your journey but you are a tough SOB. If I were you I would be ANGRY AS HELL and REALLY PISSED too. It would be the only to manage to muster the courage and stamina and endurance to keep up the good fight. I can only image the great percentage of those who faced with such grim potential, would have quietly laid down the flag.

If I might ask, of course, your entire life and daily routine is solely focused on surviving the beast but how is QOL other than the shift the focus and time spent on C? How much pain and discomfort do you endure, what has been your narco load over time, how has your mind and body function? I know these all have peaks and valleys but a general sense would be very interesting.

One other thing about recurrence that I am just on the door step of starting to learn about, as that is the next chapter of my battle on C.

You know, I had better start a new thread, this one has really gotten trampled, poor Ina.

Don,

It's not her, she is the Daughter in law to the patient.

Thank you all your response to Joyce's condition. Truthfully the last news I got was from a cousin that visited her last Tuesday. According the cousin, Joyce is in very low spirits and is tired of the treatment routine. She has gained a bit of weight since the insertion of the PEG tube. She said Joyce was complaining about a lot of pain in her face, I am not sure if the pain is due to the effects of radiation or the lesion (which her niece says is an open wound). Despite all of this, Joyce feels she has to continue since her children and the doctors advise her to. As of last week (Friday), she has finished 20 radiation treatments and 4 chemo treatments. She is on her last 3 weeks.