Hi Vatch

We all try to work out how we can cope once we get the diagnosis and treatment plan and for you it is even more difficult because you run a small company and if you cannot work for a time then the money stops coming in as do the contracts and you end up with nothing.  Those of us who are employed rather than self employed are luckier in that respect (although only getting paid Statutory Sick Pay causes some financial difficulties).  As I mentioned before I know someone who only took one week off for his final chemo session.

Do you or can you work from home?  If you can then it might help because even if you are not up to meetings or the commute to the office then at least you can do some things.

Good luck and do let us know how you get on.

Gill

Vatch, read the blog of Theo the radioactive man on wordpress. Theo is also a project manager. I am end week 6. If facilitated I could work from home. Could drive but wouldn't fancy long drives. Remember you will have to attend treatment each day and poss stay in overnight for chemo. I have seen people end up being taken in for an ng tube week 2 as Claterbridge will only administer this as an in patient. PEG patients seem to get more of a chance of staying at home. I have been disciplined about eating. Bulk up now if you can. I think the first few weeks you will be fine and maybe more. Glad you ate not having surgery. Just not heard of this before. Good Luck Mate, G.

Vatch, to clarify I did not actually wory from home! I just think I could have! Not poss in my line of work. Let me know if you need any help.

Guzzle not a problem ... it was enough to know that you feel you could have worked from homw ... even though you did not ... I read Theo's blogg and thought it was brilliant .. i might do one my self ... it will save me repearting myself to all my colleagues and freinds ata time when i cant really talk or have the energy too

How are you feeling i assume you have now finished or just about to finish your treastment how are you feeling?

Vatch

Vatch. After today got 1 chemo and 4 radio next week to finish. Got a bit of fatigue. Sore tjroat. Bit of mucus. Still eating. I have met people who have been admitted week 2. There is some luck but also being organized and taking advicevhelps. Sometimes despite their best efforts patients need help with feeding. Maybe I will. Discuss this with your team. Some swear by a Peg. Have s look on branchial cyst thread as there are various opinions. I seem to be doing OK compared to some.  Ask the questions of your team. G.

Well done mate .. getting there then and its great news that yu are still able to eat ... have you lost any weight yet?

Yep i will ask my team loads of things now ... this site has been brilliant ... its enabled me what to ask ... afterall i have never been through this before and dont really know the questions to ask ... thanks to you and everyone that has given me the insight

Mmmm... feeding im not looking forward to ... and i think the light is going on a bit with regards to functions that i am supposed to be attending that i might have to skip .... no point in sitting down to dinner and watching everyone tuck into their dinner with a knife and fork ... whilst i ask the kitchen staff if they could blend it and sit there whilst i pump it in ...i'm not sure i would want strangers whating me do that along with putting them in a position too ....  i suppose the other option is soup, more soup and yoghart ... who knows? .... i will deal with that one as i come to it and hope that i am as fortunate as you

The mucus thing appears to be an issue with most ... are you able to sleep at night or are you having to constantly clear the mucus every now and then?

Well you are nearly at the bottom of the roll-a-coaster of treatment, that slow upward incline is in sight ... i am a bit behind but i will see you at the top

Vatch

I thought i would just take this chance to itemise the steps to the point where i am at present ... in hope that it gives some of you at the early stages of this some timeline ... this all happened this year

14th Feb - Woke up with a raging sore throat and glands slightly swollen on both sides, this carried on for few days but by the end of the week the gland in my neck were not sore my left side gland was no longer swollen but right was, but was not tender to the touch ... just a lump the size and shape of a whotsit. I left this for a couple of weeks thinking it would go down ... it did not so i made an appt with GP

21st Mar - went to docs ... he gave me some antibiotics and made an appt to go to hospital and took a swab of my mouth

28th Mar - finished antibiotics ... lump had not gone and Doc told me that nothing abnormal showed up on swab

14th Apr - went to local hospital in suffolk where doc put a camera down my nose to the back of my throat and asked me repeatedily "Are you loosing weight or suffering from night sweats" each time i said no ... but this started to un-nerve both my wife and i and its the first time we talked about cancer but also dismissed as quick too ... as the lump came up when i had a sore throat ... we thought it was just and infection .... doctor sent me for a scan and biopsy

16th Apr - Went for a scan, bloke did not like the look of it so took a biopsy too .. my wife asked if it looked like cancer and he said "no ... it looks like a reactive lymph" ... what else was he going to say?

Mon 28th april ... a day i will remember for the rest of my life ... I was told that the boipsy showed cancerous cells, but what the also told me was that the lymph node was only the secondary site and that they now need to investigate to find the prime site ... another doctor put and camera down my nose

29th April ... went back to hospital for pre-op check in

30th April ... went into hospital for diagnostic check under a general stayed in all day but got out at night

1st May ... went back to hospital for a CT scan

Now i can honestly say those four days were the worst of my life ,,, I knew i had cancer, but i had no idea where or how much or how long i had to live .... at this point my wife, myself and her parents were the only ones who knew about this and looking back now i am glad we told no one else ... i was a complete mess ... constant bouts of just welling up with tears ... thinking that i was not going to be there for my kids, how much of my face was i going to lose ..... everything went through my mind ... my wife and i even spoke about funerals ... I know thats a bot ott when i look back on it ,,, but thats what we did

2nd May ... went back to the hospital as the consultant who did my diagnostic made a special appointment for me .. as i had been told nothing and he wanted to settle me .. i think... anyway it was a very earlu morning appt before all his appt started to tell me what was going on .... as we looked at the CT scan he said .."nope cant see anything" that was great news to me especial when he said to me in his danish accent "you will live"

7th May ... went to Addenbrookes for a meet with higher consultant ... who once again looked down my nose with a Camera and was just a general chat about what was going to happen but the consualtant said "i see load of this and i am confident that not only can i treat you but we can cure you" brilliant news

16th May went for PET CT scan at addenbrookes ....

24th May ..consultant at Addenbrrokes phones me to tell me that no prime site had been found so an emergency diagnostic arranged for this monday ... where they are going to take multiple biopsies and scrape where they think remaining tonsil tissue is (i had them out when i was 8)

So thats where i am ... waiting for Monday 2nd of june .... and buying loads of cold ice cream atthe weekend mmmmmmmm

i hope this helped

fingers crossed mate this seems inconclusive? It may come back negative from what you say. G

Hi vatch

I had tonsil cancer last year. They removed my tonsil but not the lump in my neck. I had 7 weeks of chemo/radiotherapy and it did indeed make the lymph node go down.

I started treatment in march and returned to work in September. I have to commute to London and I wasn't well enough to do that. Also I had a peg tube in until September. I was lucky because my employers paid me in full throughout and wouldn't let me return to work in august because they wanted me to spend the summer holidays with my kids. I probably could have returned in august but it would have been tough as I was still building myself back up.

Everyone is different. Guzzle is doing amazingly well whereas I struggled to get the sickness and mucus under control.

The waiting is definitely the worst bit as your mind can't help thinking the worst. Stay positive and you'll get through it as we all did.

Debbie