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Head & neck radiation side effects continue, especially swelling
Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: Apr 8, 2023 | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
Hi I am in my second week post 7 WK treatments. No one was very good at explaining that this was going to be so very difficult. My Radiation doc says 2 wks out I should be on the mend. Chemo doc just told me today it could be 3 months. I don't know what to believe. It's the thick phlegm that's plugging up my trach tube and fatigue. I had surgery first and think Ive lost hearing in my left ear from that. I'm a 67 otherwise healthy woman who has gone from 186lbs to 131lbs in a little over a year. I have severe trismus so bad I can't open my mouth. No appetite feeding through a tube, don't know anyone or where to find out what I can really expect now. Can you help me please
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Hi hnc67,
When the doctors give you a time frame on recovery, you should ask them how long it took them. The fact is in my experience as well as others whom I have talked with, your recovery will be a battle, but a battle you can (and must) win.
Two weeks after radiation has stopped is usually the lowest point you will be. The effects of radiation continue to compound after it ends. Just like a roast from the oven, it continues to cook for a while after it is removed. Usually after the two week point your recovery will be gradual, two steps forward and one step back. After two months you will wonder "When is this ever going to end?" Two years out and you will say " Wow, Ok, I'm not perfect but this is a lot better." A few years later you will be comfortable with your new normal.
Oh smack! What does that mean? For each of us it is different. For me, I can't eat rice without sauce or milk, white meat chicken without gravy, bread without butter, or swallow any pill larger than 1000mg among other eating issues. But that's all OK because I have adjusted my eating and was back to my normal weight within two years.
What I am saying is the recovery is slow and difficult. When you get your taste back it will probably make you cry as most of us have cried. When you get a day when your mind wasn't on your cancer you will cry. When you see a stranger in the grocery market with all the signs of cancer treatment you might walk up and hug her/him without words and cry again. And twenty years out when life has given you roses you never expected, when you can talk with someone from our world, when you can once again enjoy life and have an appreciation for the life you fought for, you will probably cry again.
We cannot help you with your suffering and recovery. We cannot hold your head or hand though we wish we could. But we can reassure you that there is life after cancer and it is a good life. And before I go, when you get your taste back and feel like eating again, buy or make your favorite pie (Cherry) and just get a fork and enjoy. No one gets to tell you "No."