@lizzyj58 I can only speculate that the reduction is an adjustment due to size or location. I would think it’s a good sign. One of the things that encouraged me occurred during my first meeting with the radiation team. What impacted me was their focus, not on survival but rather on minimizing the impact so that life after treatment could be closer to normal. They definitely want to avoid 35 sessions. I had one doctor tell me that 5 weeks was likely sufficient. They also wanted me to avoid a feeding tube if at all possible.

As you likely have figured out, not only is everyone’s situation different, so is the response to treatment.

My throat pain was like strep throat at the peak of treatment. Sore but tolerable. I only used ibuprofen and Tylenol at the last few weeks. The opioids really did nothing for me so I opted out and saved myself the constipation issues.

I slept well and would just swish some of the lidocaine solution if I woke during the night. I also applied Miaderm-L and Cetaphil cream many times per day but I didn’t realize the radiation pattern ran all the way down to the clavicle on each side. So I had some blistering there but it didn’t hurt enough to keep me awake at night. I would “dab” lidocaine solution on those spots using small cotton makeup pads. But be ready to cut out the neck area of t-shirts to avoid contact.