Quitting smoking is the most preventable form of death for many different kinds of cancer. Period.

She can qualify for assistance if she is indigent - i.e., no property, car, real estate, etc. It depends on the state where you live. In California they would give her Medicare. Most Comprehensive Cancer Centers are private. Only a few are public, like UCSF and different University hospitals (and many of those are not technically public), In our county, the health care system is pretty decent for cancer patients. You won't get to a CCC but you will get to a fairly decent radiation oncology center and a lady I know who went through the county for Small Oat Cell lung cancer got state of the art chemo cocktails along with 2 diffferent radiation treatments - lung & brain. She started her treatment 3 months after I did and she is still alive (we are talking about a cancer with a 5% 5 year survival rate) and yes she was a smoker.

Cancer fatigue is a well known side effect, especially from radiation. Her side effects will vary. Some here have continued to work and others, like myself, were totally disabled for more than a year. Depending on her age she may qualify for SSDI. If she is young it is much harder to establish a claim. There is a 5 month waiting period (from date of diagnosis) and if she is fully vested in SS than she can collect around $1500/mo. She'll also be eligible for food stamps - go to the insurance topic and there is more info on all of this. The hospital social worker should be able to answer many of these questions. (and after I read more of the thread, I see she did answer those questions).

Her cancer is AKA:
"adenoid cystic cancer
A rare type of cancer that usually begins in the salivary glands" source, NCI Dictionary
http://www.nci.nih.gov/dictionary/

They will always wait a bit after surgery before starting radiation to allow the tissues time to heal. She should have a coordinated team of doctors, oncologist, radiation oncologist, nutritionist and H&N surgeon or ENT. She should have a dental consult prior to radiation.

Jen,

Try ginger ale or frasca. Leave the can open in the refrig until it goes flat and then you may be able to drink it. Beer worked better for me than soda and I didn't have to let it go flat.

Take care,
Eileen

Gary:

Thanks for the information. It looks like SSI is out unless she gets really bad. She's 47 and already terribly thin so I'm afraid this is going to really take it's toll on her. We were trying to find help before she started falling behind on rent but it looks like they basically want you to be about on the street before you get anything. I guess each state's medicaid policy is different and here in CO you have to have kids to qualify. This is all so new to me - I am feeling so fortunate to have great insurance! I'm doing what I can to get her to kick smoking - I know how horrible it is for your immune system but I'm afraid with all the stress she's under, she may not do it. I do appreciate everyone's advice!

Robin