Hello @mjsweeney205 and welcome to the Head and Neck group. I am sorry for not getting a welcome out to you sooner, been under the doctor's knife myself. Anyway you are going through the wonderful one-hundred year old idea of zapping the body with radiation in hopes the cancer dies before you do. It usually does. And because you are not feeling bad enough, lets' give you some Chemo to wipe that smile off your face.
The radiation will continue to bring you down for several days after you are done with the treatments. Taste and smell usually takes from a few days to a few weeks before it begins to return, and it seems to never return exactly like it was before. Who knows? Maybe you will finally like the taste of rutabaga.
Try to eat what you can and drink everything you can. I tell people to eat a whole pie if that what you want. Calories are what you need over anything else.
I went through this in my late forties. I can only imagine what you are going through now as you are just a few years older than I am currently. Not sure I would want to do it a second time. It's a heck of a fight you are in. Know this: a year from now you will be back to the links and driving the scooter everywhere. Two years from now you will feel a whole lot better.
If you have questions, I or someone here has answers. In the meantime, just get through each day as it comes. Don't let the Old Man in! You are not done yet. We got this.