Hello Friends. Only 4 weeks ago, i got diagnosed with Metastasis to cervical lymph node.

Hi Ricky and welcome to the community.

What is planned for you is pretty standard treatment for OPSCC and you can dip into any thread more or less and find folk in various stages of the same treatment.

You could do much worse than look at Mark's blog on his profile page for a start

MARK'S BLOG

Your oncologist has no doubt gone through all the side effects. Understand, though that we are all different and nobody gets all of them, anyway.

Good luck. Your cancer is eminently treatable and curable so keep the faith.

Pop back as and when you need more info and support. there are lots of people her that are or who have been in the same b oat as you.

I am two years plus in remission and living a full and active life.

Oh and stay off Google, the places for accurate information is your medical team or fellow sufferers here

Hi Ricky welcome to our small community group sorry you’ve found yourself here  

3 years ago I had chemotherapy and radiotherapy for tonsil cancer with several affected lymph nodes and am now living my life to the max. The treatment is hard but doable.  There’s lots of us on here in various stages I had a no nasal feeding tube fitted week 3 of treatment. 
Please stay off google you’ll only scare yourself post any questions on here 
Hazel

Hi Beesuit, So glad to hear you are now in remission, well done. Thank you for the positive message.

Yes, the oncology team have been though the side effects and its worrying me so much, but i will take what you have said about the side effects and try and be positive. Take care. Ricky

Hi Hazel, Thank you for your kind and very positive reply. I'm so glad you have recovered. They have planned a 6 week, 5 days a week RT sessions and 6 Chemo, 1 a week. I did ask how much would the Chemo benefit and they told me it could be about 5%. This does not sound a lot, so not sure if I should go with Chemo as well. Any advise welcome. Thanks, Ricky

Ricky 5% is still 5%. I got away without chemo as I had no nodal spread. If you do have metastasis it’s is worth considering but talk it over with your oncologist. I know Hazel missed one out. Lots of people do cut their course short if they are having a real hard time of it. Maybe start and see how you go? 

Hi Beesuit, Thank you again for your support. Yes, I will start it and see how it goes.

Hi Ricky 

I was due 3 big doses of chemo some do 6 or 5 or 3 it’ depends on oncologist. What they do us divide the amount so mine was 33% at a time 5 doses is20 %. Etc. I ended up having 2 doses or 66 % of the total. After my 3 nd dose my lymph nodes had gone snd I hadn’t had any side effects do jointly with oncologist we decided no to do the remaining dose. 
Some say it’s 5 % some oncologist s say up to 12% all I knew was with having  lymph nodes spread j wanted the best chance I could in getting total response. 
the chemo makes the tumours more responsive to radio which is the main event in simple terms. 
Talk it over with oncologist, I kniw some who only did one or 2 sessions snd many whose oncologist persuaded them to have all the doses in their best interest. At the end of the days it’s your body remember. 
personally I was lucky in not getting any side effects from chemotherapy. 
hope this helps Hazel 

Hi Hazel, This is a massive help. I have my consultancy tomorrow, so i can ask these questions.

Thank you so much.

Ricky

Hi Ricky no problem if you look on my blog it might give you an idea of what’s to come. It’s not easy but I am a wimp I did it so can you. 
let us know how you get on 
Hazel 

Ricky. I was down for 5 sessions of Cisplatin too, alongside 30 fractions of RT over 6 weeks. After week 1 I told them I was experiencing some tinnitus (it wasn’t serious) and they immediately changed me over to Carboplatin which I had 4 more doses of. The side effects were almost non existent thereafter but I knew it added an extra few % to my chances of eradicating my cancer.
One of the worst things about this whole thing is the fear of the unknown, and the list of potential side effects is so damned long that no one in their right mind would sign up to it! But we do because it works and it’s unlikely that any of us will experience more than a few of the most common side effects. 
Good luck with your treatment.