Hi Linda...
He's doing good. Today is day 31 of 35 radiation treatments and not really any mouth sores to speak of (glutasolve helped alot). His mouth and throat are a little raw from the radiation,but he's not on any pain medication and hasn't really needed it. Yesterday was to be his last chemo but after talking with many doctors and doing some research, he felt it best to skip it. His first dose of chemo was the cisplatin (was to be one of 3 large doses) but the ringing in his ears became a problem. After our chemo doctor checked with a few other chemo doctors in the area, she chose to switch him to Carbo/taxol (low/weekly doses). The cisplatin and IGRT machine really made a difference. In two weeks time, the tumor was more than 50% gone, and by the end of the 3rd week, they could no longer find any trace of it. We are now starting our 7th week of treatment and all of his blood work has come back perfect! He's lost about 15 lbs. (with a feeding tube) and has been throwing up every now and then, but he's still talking, walking, laughing...and spitting up mucus. He still has some taste at this point. Somethings taste like wet cardboard, but he can still taste mashed potatoes with butter and garlic. He still has his saliva but the mucus gets in the way.
He wants so bad to be able to eat normal food again. I feel really bad eating in front of him. He's been very careful with oral eating. The last "real meal" he had was in early January...(Shorty's BBQ..his favorite). I'm guessing the peg tube will be in until mid April.
But I think he's gonna pull through this just fine. The doctors seem happy with the outcome so far. We had different issues come up after every chemo, but other than radiation burns on his neck, it hasn't been too bad.
How is your husband doing? side effects?