So many appointments

Today has been a busy day. We had a 9:20 with ENT, 10:20 with chemotherapy oncologist, 1:00 mapping/mask making; 2:30 barium swallow. My husband was exhausted when we got home. We were supposed to have the barium swallow on the 30th, but the voice/swallow therapist was very concerned with David's last swallow test and asked if we could move the barium swallow to today. The results of that test indicates he has a significant impairment in swallowing and his muscles are very weak. She said he aspirated every bit of thin liquid he ingested. She is starting him on some thick soups/puddings to try to get aggressive with increasing his swallow muscles. She was concerned if she couldn't get him swallowing before chemo/radiation started he may have a very difficult journey back to eating. He has another appointment with her in the morning to monitor him eating the desired foods and giving him pointers on what might be effective. We also found out chemo/radiation will start on October 30. He will be doing 33 radiation treatments and Cisplastin treatments given every 3 weeks starting at the beginning of his radiation. She gave us so many prescriptions it was quite overwhelming. We were initially told we would be getting the weekly chemo at lower doses, but after the oncology board met the decided he need the 100mg doses 3 times. He wasn't thrilled as they went over the potential side effects and drew blood for base line information. I feel like it is all coming together and although overwhelming it feels good to know we have a start date and we are ready to fight this fight and get on with our lives.