I had cancer on my right tonsil in 2004. The tumor was about the size of an egg. Long story short, I'm completely cancer-free now, and certainly hope the same for Michael.

I was told before starting treatment that "head-and-neck cancers" ~ which I would assume includes the throat ~ nowadays have the highest full-recovery rate of all types of cancers, but that the treatment is among the most debilitating and painful, because of all the various systems of the human body that can be found in the head and neck.

I spent a couple of months pretty whacked out on painkillers. At one point, I couldn't swallow anything, not even my own spit, and had to have a feeding tube installed in my stomach, which became my sole source of nutrition for a couple of months. It was a pretty rough time, but it WORKED.

My treatment regimen included both radiation (5 days a week for 7 weeks) and chemo (once a week for those same 7 weeks). The idea was to shrink the tumor to the point where surgical removal would be possible. The radiation and chemo worked so well that the surgery was unnecessary and never happened; the tumor was completely gone.

I'm left with zero thyroid function, about 50% saliva production, the loss of some facial hair, and a mouthful of broken-off teeth. All of that damage can be attributed the radiation I underwent. Michael is apparently getting chemo but not radiation, which should leave him with much less permanent damage. Of course, we all hope that he DOES experience "permanent damage" to all the cancer cells!

God bless and best of luck.