SamQKitty

Head and neck? Is it definitely squamous cell? If so, chemotherapy make work wonderfully well. Although my cancer wasn't definitively squamous, it had similarities to squamous (also to small cell.) They used a combination of carboplatin and taxol for mine, and I'm cancer-free 8 years later.

Do you have an oncologist? First thing is to find a good oncologist...and one that you're comfortable with. Going through chemo is definitely not fun, and you need a doctor who is going to be aggressive about making sure your husband is as comfortable as possible during treatment. That means giving IV anti-nausea drugs before the chemo infusion along with medication to take for the next few days. It does no good if they just give oral anti-nausea medications "just in case", because if he does experience nausea and vomiting, he won't be able to keep the oral meds down. Giving IV anti-nausea meds along with the follow-up oral meds is a much better way to go. It also means, in many cases, recommending what to do to prevent constipation, as some chemos can cause very severe constipation, and it's easier to prevent it from happening than to deal with it once it happens.

Ask around through your friends and neighbors (and through your doctors) to find out which oncologist people recommend. Don't just assume that the "top" oncologist at the "top" hospital is the right one for you. Having had much experience at this, I am quite happy that I stayed with my mom's oncologist at our local community hospital. He is on top of all the latest research, but he's not arrogant and he's very committed to the entire patient, not just to the cancer.

Ruth