Michael,

My mom lives in Malibu and went to UCLA for her chemo and radiation treatments. She had a very good oncologist. I think its wherever you feel the most comfortable. I know for my mom being close to home was very important as towards the end and the first few weeks after treatment ended it got pretty difficult for her and she just wanted the comfort of her own home and bed.

My mom was about 40 pounds overweight when all this started. She never had a feeding tube and had two very major surgeries that involved skin graphs and a trake and then with the radiation and chemo she lost about 60 pounds making her about 20 pounds underweight and quite unhealthy for a period of time. She was hardly getting any nutrition causing her body to start using her muscles to survive. When she finally started putting weight on is when her recovery progress really started to show. Be very careful with your weight loss my mom was really excited to finally fit into a size 5 but the rapid weight loss really had an effect on her overall general health. Now she is at a healthy weight and is starting to have to watch what she eats. My mom took a little longer than most to start feeling better. I really think it had a lot to do with the nutrition thing.

Feel free to contact me if you need anything.

Hugs,
Dani

Glad you are home Michael.

Please don't think of this as some kind of weight control program. If you proceed on to other treatments you will want every pound extra you have.

Take care

Oh, I am not intentionally trying to use this to control my weight, In fact one of the hardest tortures is to see incredible foods I love and knowing I cant swallow them!

Yay! Welcome home Michael. So glad to see you are controlling your pain okay. Makes me MAD they didn't help you control your pain better in the hospital. I was alternating between morphine and liquid Loritab in the hospital and was really amazed the morphine wasn't more effective that it was.

Then, they had me scheduled to stay on all that until I was released from the hospital. I said "But...what are you sending me home with? I want to take what I'm going home with.", and had to wean myself off the other pain killers. Then..would you believe they tried to send me home with pills instead of liquid meds? sheesh.. I was like...okay YOU go through this surgery and then swallow a horse pill. :-)

Anyway, enough of my ranting. I'm so glad you are doing well and able to eat some real food. Will help you keep up your strength before starting the next phase of your treatment. I hope you continue to do so well!

Jennifer

Michael!
You sound so good so soon! I'm glad you are pro-active and took charge even while in the hospital. They say "good patients" have a lower survival rate. Passive is not what we need to be.

I'm going to UCLA tomorrow to talk to a Head/Neck Dr. and I'll let you know what I find there. I searched cancer Dr.'s on the web and then researched their credentials and specialties. I emailed the one I liked best with my short history and asked him to consider me. He wrote right back giving me his private number! I was impressed.
I was treated at USC for years but their cancer department doesn't wow me. My Oregon surgeon strongly recommended UCLA and others have commended it as well so I'm hopeful.

Do watch losing too much weight. Even radiation takes it out of you. I lost 20 pounds just doing that! My Dr. "prescribed" chocolate milkshakes every day. Lots of good calories and easy on the throat. Also Ensure has a great mocha flavor I still crave.

The good news is that you are taking control of your illness and you and Seth have been able to figure out the work issues. You are lucky to have such nice options. Now's the time to start the humor. Read Stuart Smalley books and commit to making yourself laugh. For some weird reason it helps.
Love and hugs!!!!!!
Ali Mae

PS: Loritab is great! It tastes like Midori liquor. I was on it for weeks!

Michael,

Congratulations on being home. I know what the middle of the night pain spikes are like -- I remember them well. I just passed the two year mark on July 1.

I was lucky not to need radiation or chemo so I can't give you advice on that decision, but good luck. I know you'll hear from a lot of people here who can give you direction.

Barb

PS The lodge looks beautiful.

Michael,
I had breast cancer 9 years ago. I had my surgery and treatment out of St. Joseph's in Orange. It was an ok hospital but not great, however I loved my surgeon. For treatment (a mastectomy was my only real option) I went to UCLA for a 2nd opinion and used that oncologist's advice for treatment but did the treatment in Orange.

My neighbor's mother did something similar- got treatment advice from MD Anderson but had a local Dr administer the treatment.

I just had surgery yesterday (left neck lymph node disection and left tonsillectomy, and various small mouth biopies) at HOAG in Newport and thought it was a very nice hospital and was happy with the serivce. My surgeon was Dr. Strelzow who came highly recommended to me by several other Dr.s (my pathologist, Primary care physician, my oncologist, and my son's respiratory specialist, my pediatrician)

No hospital is perfect though and you always have to double check things. I like the oncologist that was recommended to me but since I don't have a diagnosis yet I have not begun to research into treatment.

My point is - find a DR you like and also find the best treatment for you - but having the treatment close to a home is very nice. A four hour drive seems very far.

Good luck!!!!

Hey Wendy!

Congrats on comming through surgery...You are ALREADY online and posting to help other people??

You are AMAZING!!! I want to return to OC just to hang with you and maybe some of your strength will rub off on me.

I like HOAG. I think it is a fine hospital.

There is an Oncologist there (in fact the head of the dept (Dillman I think) spoke to me about treatment options over the phone...GREAT GUY!

My sister's friend is an oncological radiation technician at St Josph's, and she has been a wealth of information and references...

I'll be praying for good pathology results from your surgery!

Are they looking for a primary? Do you have any diagnosis yet?

Be sure to ask for Dr Peter Chen at Hoag for radiation...He's the best there and runs the new TomoTherapy CT guided radiation device.

Please keep us all posted...

PAIN FREE!!!!

Last night I took one of the new Tylenol Extended Release (Exactly WHAT I asked for at the hospital when they told me no such thing exists!).

Boom. Slept all night long!!!!!!

Today I have ZERO pain. Some muscle tenderness at the base of my neck, and a slight tingle at the site, but no pain...

In fact, I haven't taken any prescription meds since 6:00 PM last night.

I just took another XR to keep it away while I am working today, but I wanted to let you all know.

I know I'm going to sound bi-polar, but if you could just see what a glorious day it is here today! I had my morning green tea on the new deck overlooking the indigo blue of the Pacific.

My parents are still with us but will most likely return to their So Cal responsibilities today.

Then Seth and I will be deciding on the next course of tx.

Love and hugs!!

- Michael