Hello,
Your treatment plans sounds very much like the treatment plan that I had. I just want to let you know that I was diagnosed stage IIIA. I had two lymph nodes to light up in my chest. I had 6 weeks of weekly chemo (carboplatinum/taxol) and daily radiation. I was surprised that it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I did not lose my hair, nor did I get sick from the chemo. My radiation oncologist gave me a liquid medicine to take which helped with the radiation discomfort you might get on your esophogus. Be sure to ask. Also I used 100% Aloe Vera Gel and Aquaphor on my chest for radiation discomfort which I had very little of. The good news was that at the end of the 6 weeks my tumor had all but disappeared. My surgeon told me that he was going to take me to surgery and test my lymph nodes and if they showed no cancer he would go ahead with the surgery otherwise he would close me up and not do the surgery and I would be treated with more chemo and radiation. Well, thank God my lymph nodes did not test positive for cancer and I was able to have surgery. I had an upper right lobectomy and my surgeon removed twenty lymph nodes. The pathology report was that nothing showed positive for cancer. I had two more sessions of the same chemo after my surgery. That was rough because the chemo was three times stronger than what I had before surgery. I did lose all of my hair and I had aches and pains which started the second day after the infusion and lasted 2 to 3 days. My surgery was in July of 2005. At the end of August 2005 I was back at work teaching high school. All of my scans since my surgery show no cancer.You did not mention if you had a PET scan, which determines if cancer has spread anywhere else in your body. It is like a CT scan they give you an injection and it lights up anywhere in your body where there is cancer. I am very grateful to God, to my friends and family and to this wonderful website where I came so many times and got support because I was so scared. Please remain positive and fight this disease with all of your heart and soul. When I was first diagnosed I thought I was going to die. Myself as well as others are here to let you know that you most certainly can survive this awful disease. Also like others have already said, drink plenty of water. Just make it a habit to always have a bottle of water with you. I will be praying for you.
Carol