Nasopharyngeal cancer

Hi Ashley welcome to the club none of us ever wanted to find ourselves joining. 
I am 3 years post radiotherapy for tonsil cancer with several affected lymph nodes. In treatment I met a guy called Neil he too had nasopharyngeal cancer he had exactly the  same treatment as I did. 35 radiotherapy sessions and 3 10  hour sessions of cisplatin chemotherapy ( some hospitals do weekly sessions smaller doses )  . With his cancer being less mouth and throat he did manage to maintain oral feeding albeit with some difficulty but he drunk the fortisip s orally As you will discover we are all different in ho w we react to treatment.

Be guided by your team please keep off Dr Google that will only scare you  

 .Where as I had to have n g tube fitted during treatment Neil didn’t. 
I am still in touch with him and we are meeting up next week so as you can see the treatment worked very well for both of us. 
If you want to look at my blog details below on my one year anniversary theres photo’s of Neil and I 

any questions I will try to help 

Hazel xx

Good evening Ashley, i have not had this cancer but the success rate is very good, being younger and fitter does help with any cancer recovery, it just takes us a bit longer when we get older but most of us all end up with a similar result of curing the cancer. Even though its a rarer cancer does not mean its any harder to treat, i had never heard of head and neck cancers way back in 2008 so was surprised i had floor of the mouth cancer, then lower jaw cancer followed by Larynx cancer in a space of 3 years. What amazed me was the skill of the consultants and their teams and how confident and determined they are in getting the end result as it looked so scary for me at the time. I would say in most cases the success rate has increased a lot since i first started (2008 )my first operation/radio and chemo due to advanced treatments. Wishing you all the best ,take care.

                                                                                                Chris.

Hi Ashley. As Chris says , it's a rare cancer but treatable and curable. I've done a search on the forum and HERE are the results from other folk in the last year....a bit of a mixed bag. If you click on the bottom of the column under RESULTS you can change the search to the whole group and that gives you more posts.

The chemo, (if you need it as not everybody does) for Nasopharyngeal cancer is a little different from oropharyngeal. Do you know what you are having? 

Rest assured your team will pull out all the stops for you and if you stick around there are lots of people in the group ready to help pull you through too.

For now my best advice is to leave Google alone, please. 

Best wishes

Thank you for this I have been looking through the list and I wont know my treatment until I have seen the consultant next week, but the stories are positive.

Hi. I have been reading your blog, the treatment plan does not scare me but the after effects do especially if I need further surgery corrective or other. I have been keeping a journal of my experiences and emotions as it helps me to cope. I like the detail that you include and what works well and what did not. I was not aware of the medical exemption for having cancer as I have always purchased a prepayment certificate but shall enquire about this.

I totally understand, I had not heard of nasopharangeal and many others that I am coming across now as I search the forums and online. I am 50 but feel I have aged 10 years since being told of my cancer, just hoping and praying a treatment is in place that is workable.

Hi Ashley Thank you for reading my blog I will be updating it on as I’m fast  approaching 3  years post treatment, as I said in blog I did it as it was the only thing I could control in a situation where I really didn’t have any control. Glad it helped just ask any questions no matter how trivial one of us will get back to you. 
As I said my friend Neil is back working snd has just returned from Majorca in a family holiday. He too was 50 when diagnosed.

Hazel 

I was 48 when i first got cancer, im sure they will come up with a positive treatment plan, i used to take things a day at a time and deal with any issues as they came we all cope or manage differently. Just re-post if you need further support, hope you have a nice weekend,take care.

                                                                                   Chris

Hi Ashley, looks like you have been diagnosed with same thing at the  same time as me. Presently sitting in a hospital bed as they decided it would be best to fit a feeding tube before treatment started, save cause any further distress during treatment if it was needed. The feeding tube has caused  great pain which they say is unusual  I have been in for 3 days and waiting to see specialist nurse tomorrow.  I will be having radiotherapy for 7 weeks and 3 lots of chemotherapy beginning middle and end. 

Hi Lioness, I understand the distress caused by the diagnosis only too well. Is there is no surgery planned for you or have you had some already? I am sorry to hear of the pain from the feeding tube, I hope it is sorted now.

I am due to have brain skull surgery endoscopically and will lose my sense of smell completely, but this is ok if I can also lose the cancer as well!!, but I find out in the next few days when it will be. I will also start radiotherapy sometime in Oct/Nov also for 7 weeks, I have been warned by my surgeon that it will be worse than the surgery but each person recovers differently. There is support here and read the blog by Radioactiveraz and items to buy use in preperation for radiotherapy.