Thanks other half we are Skiathos veterans this will be our 7th visit and Greece all over probably 35 + times, love it :)

Hi no problem if I can help anyine through this I will only too happy to pass in anything I’ve learnt. The main point I want to try and get through to the cancer hospitals is the 10/14 days after treatmentbwhen they say yiu will feel ill then you should be fine they are way off the mark with that ! I have been in contact via my blog and various forums with a lot of people any very very few feel well after 2 weeks. What they should be saying is recovery is very individual in rare cases it could be 2 weeks some will be months and a small percentage could take uo to 2 years.

what you’re hubby needs to remember is after treatment finishes it’s like being thrown into a lions cage we’ve had constant support seen medical teams for weeks then all of a sudden  not a lot ! Of medical support. I was lucky and my oncologist becasue I was a female with a mostly a make cancer he wanted to monitor me  a bit  closer.

I did have weekly meeting with the Macmillan nurses which really helped .

I do know if guys who being the macho make in ine case on the first Monday decided to drive 40 miles ,needless to say he ended up phoning hime as he nearly caused a pile up on motorway.We just don’t have the concentration to start with. I am like Ian (Anchor 1707)  an avid reader but neither of us picked a book up for months .its strange but after treatment it’s all stored in our bodies and slowly releases. 

Please don’t think I am putting a downer on it , remembers 8 weeks post treatment we flew to Spain for 16 days and I rode my bike. !! Some say I was too early but it was my goal ,set yourself little targets. 

Thank you for kind words. 

Hazel x

Oscar 2020- Wow 35 times! Thought we'd been alot! We love Greece too-esoecially the quieter islands- we were booked to Paxos in June-had to postpone until mid Sept but still going so happy with that.

I'm not surprized you are returning to Skiathos-it is 1 of my favorite islands- please let me know how it was as I love the place!! Enjoy xx

Hi Hazel- Ah I was going to ask you when you finished your treatment- but 8 weeks is good going! We had a holiday booked to Greece in June -but postponed it until mid Sept-hoping my hubby would be ok by then but that gives me hope! & cycling too-wow! You're either super woman or a crazy woman! But good for you-that's positive for you! I was telling him you'd returned to normal (ish) to go on a cycling holiday but I thought it was something like a year after.

But yes I appreciate everyones different & it requires patience but having a goal (or holiday in most peoples cases from what I'm reading) to aim for & look forward to is good too.

Thanks again-your advice is really helpful & encouraging-have a good weekend x

Hi it’s wasn’t easy but I had booked the flights we have a long term rental apartment and hubby was desperate to go as we would usually be there mid August last year and I was otherwise engaged with a mask and radiotherapy table !!! I made the decision that I was going dontbget me wrong right uo to them moment the aircraft door closed I could have gotten off .but honestly it did help me on my recovery. I still have 20 min power nap most days but now sleeping 8 hours every night so there’s is light at the end if the tunnel .

good luck keep,in touch 

h x

Hi! Thanks so much, I find this information really helpful because the more we now, a better treatment will come. And also because it's increasing in incidence and could turn into a huge problem in the future, I think as a society we don't give as much atention as we should to this. I wanted to update a little bit more with some information I found recently and I think could be interesting. 

As I said before and probably you all know, since being HPV+ has a more possitive prognosis, a deintensification of treatment is being tested. This could likely lead to less side effects and associated risks of radiotherapy. There is people trying to *** who could benefit from this and a test is being evaluated to find what people tend to have a worse prognosis by finding Circulating Tumor Cells. This CTCs are like seeds, they are in the blood and are the ones that could lead to additional tumors. It seems that maybe, evaluating the existence of CTCs prior to treatment could help planning the treatment ahead and deintensificate it in case it's negative.

Also, most people after treatment are followed up to see what's going on, having the camera down the nose and some scans. This could change in the future since we (by 'we' I mean the scientific community) are investigating how circulating HPV DNA could be used as a surveillance tool. It seems that people who don't have circulating HPV DNA after treatment are way less likely to suffer a recurrence. I think that, if this turns true, it would be amazing. Not only to calm the patient after treatment in case the test comes back negative and maybe not exposing them to more radiation at so many scans, but also to follow more closely those ones who are possitive. 

Also I wanna say that I constantly use "maybe", "likely"... Because articles are based on limited data that at the end may not lead to something that will be used, but are investigated since even fails are useful. 

Here's the link to an article that talks a little bit more about this: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../31071126

Have a great weekend :love:

Hi lemon I’ve brill thank you if I can help in any way on your research just ask . Are you still in Spain we returned last weekend ? 

Will read the article avidly 

Hazel x

Wow have just read the article very interesting facts , will be interested to know more when eventually done. Is this a Greek study looking at the drs names ? 

Hazel 

Hi Lemon - some excellent information here and also some other Informative abstracts to read. Ut will be interesting to see how treatment regimes change for OPSCC’s that are HPV+ and non smoking -as opposed to OSCC’s and OPSCC’s that are HPV- or smoking related in the future along with the interesting research into the biochemical markers to predict reoccurrence. Im sure my husband - although has the nasopharyngeal camera with no complaints would be interested in an alternative.

Keep on with the info its really useful

Emma