I am 15 months post surgery. My experience has been that pain decreases and swallowing improves. Dry mouth is a challenge. I still have some challenges but I'm learning to handle them. I find that if I drink warm decaf tea or coffee with my food I can swallow better than cold drinks. The swelling and lymphedema comes and goes. If I keep up with my self massage and stretching and swallowing exercises it helps. Early on I used a squeeze of fresh lemon in my water to stimulate my taste buds. I also touched a piece of homemade dill pickle to my tongue to stimulate saliva every day. Even before I could chew and swallow it. At 15 months,my saliva is much improved.

So healing happens. Improvements will come. Sometimes so slowly you won't even notice at first. But you will be able to look back at times that you could not do something you can do now.

If I were looking for a new career I would hire out to local restaurants. Several otherwise good restaurants need counseling on what makes a decent soup! For crying out loud!

Tell your husband to hang in there. In the mean time Pinterest has several recipes on making tapioca pudding from scratch in a crockpot. That and a cup of cocoa makes a wonderful treat on a cold winter day.