checking in - my day with oncologists

I will be brief here because I really want to get to a "deeper things" entry today. But I met with the oncology med doctor and oncology radiation doctor today. Here's how it goes...it's actually a stage 4A tonsil cancer which has spread to a lymph node, but not the nightmare that stage 4 usually implies. Prognosis for cure is quite good in my case. I will have a feeding tube "installed" in my stomach next week, as there may come a time in this process that even drinking water may be quite painful. Unfortuantely, the oncologist said I could not eat Pizza through a feeding tube. Hmmm...after this is all over, when the time comes...I am going to get a New York (Rays) Pizza flown in to Nebraska. Or better yet, maybe we'll fly to New York for a seven week daily dose of Rays. Sometime around week four of radiation, from the description I received, I will become aware that the lining of my throat has been burned away by radiation. Two to three rounds of chemo, each being admisnisterd over a course of two days, during week one, week four, and possibly week seven. I have a feeling pain meds and nausea meds will become my two best friends. I got fitted for a cool mask, which I will wear during radiation sessions that will allow the IMRT radiation to be targeted precisely. The process of fitting that mask did, once again, make me feel like I was in some sci.fi/horror flick. This should all be over by Halloween, so that I might wear that mask in another context (forget that...I probably will want to burn it.

that's the essentials...feeding tube placed next week, and then I wait around 5 days to begin this seven week journey.