Husband is at Mayo today and in the morning, he will have a CT guided biopsy to the area that has not been reachable.

They were very positive and have seen this tumor situation on the carotid artery often. The doc said she has only lost 1 patient with this scenario and feel there is a 80-90% success rate possible.

She is awaiting to see how much radiation he was given the first time to determine course of action. The bottom line is, this area probably never received radiation the first time.

So here we are....sitting and waiting for a few days until they figure out a game plan.

He will be doing immunotherapy most likely as well. That can be done an hour from here and the radiation would be either 5 days or 6 weeks 4 hours north of us at Mayo.

Most positive thing I've heard in the past couple of weeks....been really dreary in my household lately.

still waiting to hear a treatment plan.

but grrrrr...he's having a friend over and i said i hope you are not drinking. of course he is. he already has cancer so what does it matter?

I might as well stick around here as I feel this is going to be the rest of his life...back and forth.

Almost all OC patients who went thru rads have encountered major issues making eating and drinking very difficult. Between the painful mouth sores, swallowing challenges, and the very long road of recovery its surprising your husband is able to tolerate drinking alcohol. Most OC patients are unable to tolerate the intense burning sensation they get form even a tiny sip of alcohol. Unfortunately, OC patients who are habitual drinkers somehow overcome the hurdles and find a way to continue drinking regardless of the pain or consequences. Its only a matter of time before their actions eventually catch up to them. Im so sorry to read your husbands has continued his stubbornness and also still ignores his doctors advice to avoid drinking.

Being a caregiver is not an easy job, especially when caring for someone who has their own ideas about following their doctors orders. Wishing you all the very best with everything you have going on. Hang in there !!!

Yikes. I had a taste of red wine the other day and it tasted like I was drinking gasoline. I love(d) red wine before all of this. I think my body was telling me something.

After his radiation treatment, John found all kinds of red wine tasted metallic. It seems to happen to a lot of patients.

his only issue is that sweets don't taste sweet. otherwise, food is pretty much the same as he remembered it and remember he didn't take any pain meds through treatment. Hard to believe, I know but he was so afraid of constipation, he refused to take pain meds.

It's just hard to have empathy for someone who has to pave his own way all the time.

thanks for all the words. i do appreciate them