hello to all and special thank you to christine who is kind enough to show me the ropes of this web site. I am donald breaux and in the beginning stages of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, primary was located in right toncil.stage 2. I am totally new to all of this including the jargon. I already had my tonsils removed and a mediport and peg tube in place. I am already seeing oncologist for radiation treatments ( have not started as of yet 12-21-09) I met my chemo oncologist today for the first time. My ENT dr has put together a world class team in her own words, after meeting with the chemo dr today I really believe she is being totally honest with me. This dr. resume was a mile long with the ability to practice from louisiana, to uk to dutch. he is listed as a top 100 dr in america. so I am very comfortable with him. From what i have read this will be not an easy thing. I have been trying to boost up my weight. I weighed in at 128 when this first started and actually lost 10 # I have been eating tons of milk shakes with added ice cream and muscle milk. christine I will add the instant breakfast and the peanut butter to this. I hope to gain weight. hello again and thanks for listening donald

welcome to the family Donald. There is a true wealth on information at this site, it certainaly helped me. I too had a great med team, and they a did a great job, (Clear PET early Dec) but none of them had gone through the hell we have been through. The folks here understand spit, pain, can't swallow, burning neck, being down, being up....all first hand experience!

So read the posta, ask questions keep us informed on your progress.
Steve

Welcome Donald! You have come to the right place for support. I know this place has been by home away from home. When the going gets tough we are here for you. They have been here for me and kicked my in the rear sometimes. I needed it thought. I am a stubborn one. Do you know when you start treatment? I just finished my 3rd week.

Welcome Donald. It sounds like you have a great team in place and are ready for the next step which is for treatment to start. Once that happens, I think you will find your anxiety level drops as you will then be actively engaged in DOING SOMETHING about fighting the beast.

In the meantime, remember that cancer is a thief. It wants to steal the days before your treatment as well as many others. Don't let it - it already gets far too many of our days through treatments, surgeries and recovery. Do not let it have any through worry and anxiety!!

Hang in there - you're going to do great with chemo/rad. Beware of trying to picture how you are going to handle these things - we are all very diffferent and you could have a completely opposite experience.

Hope to hear more from you.

Donna

Welcome Donald -
1) Eat, eat, eat, eat
2) Keep a positive attitude
3) Keep yourself busy - don't let Cancer define you.
4) Make every effort to surround yourself with caring, loving family.

Good Luck!!!

hello steve nice to meet you and thanks for being here for me, working on when we will start the treatments and will notify you when it does take place from looks of things after christmas holidays. again thank you friend keep in touch donald

hello angelia and my warmest wishes to your recovery! I am satisfied with the overwhelming responses at this site which has a calming affect inside me letting an unknown known... thanks for being here for me anglia and please keep in touch donald

hello donna and thank you for your advice I will try to keep my focus on the healing and not at the problem. I think it will be a tuff road but I am here to win and win I will! keep in touch and again thank you for being here for me donald

Donald

Welcome to OCf\F. I remain puzzled about your reliance on the albumin scores as I posted in reply to you, but attribute that to the general daze and haze that afflicts everyone who receives this diagnosis. It won't be long before DavidCPA exhorts you to add a signature line, so I will just say that you could not have found a more informative forum let alone a more supportive venue than OCF. The good news is that you can survive this, especially since you are one of the few to be discovered prior to Stage IV. So take our tales of woe with a dose of salt. Also take some time to explore all the great information on the main OCF site.
Here's hoping you beat this easily
Charm

hello ms carmen and thank you for your advice. I really been eating a hell of a lot more than I have ever in my life! i am a natural fighter and I always loved the words you can't I always proved them different in every situation.http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/images/icons/default/thumbs_up.gif thank again and please keep in touch donald

Donald...

Welcome to OCF !!!!! Nice to see your post, good job Now if we can just get you to add a signature

Hint.... Its located under the My Stuff tab (then my profile)

Donald,

Like you I'm a thin guy. I weighed in at 130 at diagnosis, made it to 138 at start of treatment and weighed out at 130 again so it can be done.

I was stage 1 with a fairly large tumor area of 3 cm but it was non-invasive, which means it did not go very deep in the tissue. I still got 70gy which is about the norm, but no chemo.

Let us know if you have any questions or just feel free in griping if you want. We are all in the same boat here.

Kelly

hi christine I found the sig part but what do i put in here? donald thank you!!!

hi christine I found it! now what do I put in here?

thank you kelly you are giving me hope almost every one is on the larger side and have the other problem of loosing the weight. I never ever could gain it no matter what I tried I too was a heavy smoker and quit after the diagno thanks bud I do like this site keep in touch donald

Donald,

Go to the Forum list and click on the second one down (Frequently asked Questions). Then click on "Abreviations for common terms". This will give you a good idea of the abreviations we are using in our signature lines.

You can fill out what you know now and fill in the rest as you figure all this out. It will only take a few visits to the site and reading a few signature lines from others to get you cought up.

As you can see I was a heavy smoker until Dx. quitting helped me gain a few pounds before treatment. it was at this site that they made it clear to me that I realy needed to do that.

Kelly

Donald,

Were you a tobacco user? If not Have you been tested for HPV?

And you don't have to fit your Signature Line on one line so please go back and add some spaces. Also make sure every date has a year.

I was also a fit, couldn't afford to loose 1 pound, low weight person pre Tx. I didn't get a PEG, had a horrible time with nausea from the chemo and lost 30% of my body weight.

I assume no nodal involvement since you are a Stage II?

hello again and don't be puzzled over the albumin test, My ent dr is the one who is really pleased with it because of how thin of a guy I am. It also relaxed her worry about the actual nutritional state of my body knowing all too well that I cannot really afford any weight loss. I know what I am up against and no I am not dazed or confused I can assure you. My mind set is as positive as can be and I am focused on the solutions and not the problem that is why I took the appropriate actions I have taken And going full speed ahead with all my treatments along with all the positives of health that I do possess. hope this clears up your concerns donald

welcome to the forum donald! u have found the right place for support!! please keep us updated.

Hello Donald,

I'm so glad you found this site. My husband just finished treatment in Oct. I found this site invaluable for support and help answering questions. Stay in touch as you go through the treatment. People here understand thoughts and feelings specifically about head and neck cancer treatment.

We had our moments of despair and struggles and always found hope in the stories of others. He is on the up and up now. We are thinking of you and sending lots of good thoughts.

Vanessa

Hi Donald,

Sorry you have to be here, but welcome to the forum! You will find so many wonderful people here who will be able to offer support and help. It sounds like you have a great attitude and that is so important. Good luck in your treatments and keep us updated.

All the best,

Shelley

Don...

Hope you eat like crazy and then eat some more Wishing you a Happy Holiday season.