Hi Pamela

As someone that has been through the mill and over a year out now I was presented with the same course of treatment. It was to be a combined tonsillectomy and modified neck dissection followed by chemo/rad.  I had volunteered for one of the current studies to determine what level of treatment works best. However after the operation they found I fell outside of the study guidelines. So then was dropped into the established (standard) chemo/rad. treatment. It appears the science is not yet established with regards the optimal treatment to reduce  side effects as much as possible. Another guy (‘Vatch’) on this forum was treated by the same teams at the same hospital a few years before me. gammaraygary.wordpress.com/.../

 It was interesting to compare our different treatments. It appears this horrible disease is very responsive to radiotherapy/ chemo and so good results are obtained without the usual invasive surgery. 

Btw  I only had two sessions of chemo. It really made me feel rotten and thankfully they decided to stop it without me asking. 

Paranoia is healthy! I had too many questions and dark thoughts. Yet here I am well beyond it now with few side effects and glad I put my trust and faith in the medical teams. The results are pretty much as I was told by the medics and had been told the prognosis was excellent. 

It is a difficult few months and hope all goes well. 

For now eat eat eat and drink. Getting liquids in when things get tougher is really important. No doubt you are in good hands and will get this over and done with. 

Paul B