Any advice on preparing treatment?

Lelya said:

Any products or things I can do...

Also, if radiation is only in the neck area, it will also affect my ability to eat?  

Hi and welcome. 
You should get all the creams you need from your team. Flamigel is the one to ask about.  I used Cetraben to moisturise and aloe vera gel straight after RT. 
You might escape the worst of the mucositis but I would expect some. You’ll get mouthwashes to help with that. The common ones are Difflam and Gelclair. 
T2 is quite a big cancer. You might want to get some reassurance from your oncologist that irradiating the neck will be enough. At least I would. 

Hi I’m four weeks post radiation treatment. Had scc hpv positive left tonsil plus one positive lymph node in neck. Had two surgeries with clear margins. 
I found RT ok. I’ve got sensitive skin too so made sure I used Flamigel RT gel six times every day and had no marks or burns on neck whatsoever. I didn’t need a feeding tube at all. Oncologist said I wouldn’t need one. I didn’t. Had mucositus from week 2 but not too bad. Didn’t need painkillers as throat wasn’t too bad. Tastebuds disappeared and not returned as yet. Slight hair loss nape of neck. I’ve not even had fatigue. Some people find it hard going but some don’t. 
one warning though…my surgeon at aintree told me I’d only need neck RT. Oncologist wasn’t happy. She said protocol is throat and neck to mop up any stray cells. So I took her advice. Glad I did now. 
Happy for you to message me if you need a chat. 

Thank you for your answer and for your blog. I found a lot of info and encouragement here! 

My tumour was 2 cm actually - and I don't know exactly what the treatment will be, I only had a meeting with one of the doctors and I asked what to expect. He said that there is a possibility for only radiating the neck, but let's wait for the board decision. I had a large biopsy in December and end of February an excision - with no evidence of the tumour.

As for the creams, I live in Romania and I'm not sure if I can find all the creams, I'm preparing to order on Amazon. 

Thanks a lot, your situation seems pretty similar to mine. Had 2 operations as well - the first large biopsy and the second excision. Also had neck dissection. Hope I'll have side effects similar to yours , but we'll see.

Yes I had a panendoscopy and tonsil removal on nov 2nd then removal of rest of tumour which was 7mm and neck dissection which removed 40+ lymph nodes. Only the enlarged one was positive thankfully. Flamigel can be very expensive through Amazon. I’m assuming you’d get a similar gel or cream from your hospital. 

Thanks for being available to chat, I'm not sure how to do this yet, but I'll figure it up soon.

Do you happen to know how large was the enlarged node? They told me mine was 3.7 cm and that is pretty big.

Lelya said:

Thanks for being available to chat, I'm not sure how to do this yet, but I'll figure it up soon.

Click on Sooh’s name. You’ll se a + at the top. Click on that and you get a drop down menu. Choose request friendship. When Sooh accepts your request you can swap private messages 

PS when I get a friend request after accepting I usually send a message, a wave or something. That way the conversation is started. 

HI Lelya and a warm welcome from me.  My hospital did not prescribe creams or lotions by default.  On their advice I used E45 and Aloe Vera gel throughout treatment and did not suffer any significant skin problems.  Prior to radiotherapy I had 2 neck dissections so my neck was reasonably tender.  A year after treatment I still use E45 and Aloe Vera and make sure I am well covered up in the sun.

A lot will depend on your own skin and where they are treating and how aggressively they are irradiating the area as to what damage you may have to the skin.

The tumour they eventually treated was 14 x 16 x 19 mm and that was successfully treated with chemo and radiotherapy (the chemo was an added measure as I have an unusual presentation of this cancer).  Prior to that I had a lymph node 30 x 20 x 20 mm in size removed.

My hospitals radiation department gave the recommended creams.  I’d ask them. 
yes, you may encounter issued with eating.  It’s a challenge we all go through 

Hi, Peter, and thanks for the warm welcome! You are such a friendly community, I've been around since late January, when I received my SCC diagnosis, and I really found support here, even without posting.

I've read your story - a long one, but you still had those years of enjoying life while getting used to the idea of SCC.

Mine is very short: had a wise tooth extraction late September 2024, all good for 3-4 weeks, then I discovered kind of a lesion there around mid November. Went to a max fax surgeon at the beginning of Decembr and he decided to do an excisional biopsy, as the lesion was rather small (around 2 cm). So he took it out and late January I found our it was actually SCC.

Sent me for a CT that found enlarged lymph nodes. New operation on February 26: reexcision for better margins and left side neck dissection.

No evidence of disease on tumour site, but one of the nodes was with SCC and it was larger than 3 cm. N2T2M0. So I'm preparing for RT and pretty scared about the side effects, as I have quite a sensitive skin. And a stiff neck after neck dissection. 

Hope I managed to get myself clear, English is my second language.