I've had chronic throat cancer since Jan 2019 and underwent 35 doses of proton beam radiation at Mayo Rochester and had 6 doses of chemo. It was hard. Sounds similar to your dad. I was 63. They put a feeding tube in me 3 weeks into treatment. i wish i had it done at the outset. My tumor was on my epiglottis and the radiation fused my esophagus so i could not swallow for a long time. After 15 months on a feeding tube it was removed. That was one of the happiest days of my life. It was not the inability to eat-I had plenty of nutrition through the feeding tube but the loss of socialization via food and drink was almost impossible to bear for me.
There was some great rewards-I lost almost 100 lbs., I stopped drinking alcohol for a long period and most important i realized if I got through this I could probably get through anything. It gave me inner strength.

My esophagus is still very narrow. I need to crush pills and swallow them with moist foods. I can't eat very dry or large foods-e.g. beef, however, i don't focus on what I cant eat only on what I can eat and I'm grateful for that. I eat more slowly and smaller portions which keeps me healthy. the adjustment is worth it for sure. I prefer to focus on my abilities not my inabilities and am grateful for that.

@donnarebar, how is your father doing with the feeding tube?

Very interesting he can eat crunchy cookies. I still have a hard time with anything crunchy, dry, have salt/sugar/sugar substitute. I had swallowing issues after my treatments. I saw Speech Therapy that gave me exercises to do to stretch and strengthen the tongue and muscles of the face and neck. I had a fairly good result. But I do eat with much smaller portions. Chew very well, and use lots of water to “hard” swallow. Wishing your dad the best. Life is so very different.