Your tips for recovery after 35 radiation treatments for tonsil cancer

@hrhwilliam

My oncologist told me I am making good progress but the tongue area will heal in time. It might help to be a patient person but I am not. I just hope everyday I feel somewhat better. I am have worked hard to adjust my attitude but that is a struggle with this hell. My tongue feels swollen but does not look that way. My oncologist is keeping me on oxycodone to use when the pain gets too difficult. However, I only use the minimum dose because next to hating not eating I hate medications. I am trying different ways to get 2,000 calories a day and increase my protein. I know that without nutrition I will not heal. Today is a down day maybe due to being tired since I just started back to work full time yesterday. Through all of this I have been working half days to maintain the little sanity I have left. This support group has helped me realize others have gone through this same hell and survived. I guess the slow journey to healing is the pathway but is it damm slow.

@dragonfire I gaged improvement week to week during recovery rather than day to day because the latter was depressing. Week to week showed some progress and month to month, particularly a few months out was great.
Keep fighting. Keep trying different things to see what works. You are in the difficult next few weeks. You will feel like you are still going downhill when the treatments end for about a week or so, like pulling a roast from the oven, it keeps cooking for a while. And then that day comes when something works again.
My daughter got me the "Pink Panther" series DVD's to watch. Inspector Clouseau tried to ford a moat unsuccessfully as one would expect. I laughed although it very much hurt to do so. My family noticed that I hadn't laughed in two months. The following week I could taste chicken soup, another milestone. In the years since, you would not believe the wonderful life I have lived.
You too can and will see this through. As Clouseau says, this is a bimp in the rood.

@dragonfire I gaged improvement week to week during recovery rather than day to day because the latter was depressing. Week to week showed some progress and month to month, particularly a few months out was great.
Keep fighting. Keep trying different things to see what works. You are in the difficult next few weeks. You will feel like you are still going downhill when the treatments end for about a week or so, like pulling a roast from the oven, it keeps cooking for a while. And then that day comes when something works again.
My daughter got me the "Pink Panther" series DVD's to watch. Inspector Clouseau tried to ford a moat unsuccessfully as one would expect. I laughed although it very much hurt to do so. My family noticed that I hadn't laughed in two months. The following week I could taste chicken soup, another milestone. In the years since, you would not believe the wonderful life I have lived.
You too can and will see this through. As Clouseau says, this is a bimp in the rood.

@hrhwilliam

My oncologist told me I am making good progress but the tongue area will heal in time. It might help to be a patient person but I am not. I just hope everyday I feel somewhat better. I am have worked hard to adjust my attitude but that is a struggle with this hell. My tongue feels swollen but does not look that way. My oncologist is keeping me on oxycodone to use when the pain gets too difficult. However, I only use the minimum dose because next to hating not eating I hate medications. I am trying different ways to get 2,000 calories a day and increase my protein. I know that without nutrition I will not heal. Today is a down day maybe due to being tired since I just started back to work full time yesterday. Through all of this I have been working half days to maintain the little sanity I have left. This support group has helped me realize others have gone through this same hell and survived. I guess the slow journey to healing is the pathway but is it damm slow.

@dragonfire
Hi there,
I am just about 2 months post treatment and my eating is improving all the time. I am still on a feeding tube but I have managed to cut down to half the amount I was taking and I am hoping to get the tube out in the next couple of months. I am starting to get some, but minimal taste buds back. I have to force myself to just eat even though the stuff has no taste. Early on I found that I could tolerate things like mini-ravioli and Alphagetti! LOL. My biggest challenge has been finding something I can drink and that I can hydrate with. Water for some reason tastes weird? I like orange juice (120 Kcal/ 125 mL)and I just found out that I really like Gatorade (120 Kcal/ bottle). I guess my point is, it won’t be pretty but keep experimenting until you can find things you can tolerate. You will come up with some really weird combinations, but as long as your getting your calories and protein, what you eat, doesn’t matter.

@scottmcf1431 Water tasted funny to me as well. Now not so bad, but in the beginning I could taste things in the water if that makes sense? I'm going to try Gatorade (orange). Are your Saliva glands coming around? Mine are still minimal and I have a hard time with bread, crust, or crackers.

Hallo: @harleytiger @scottmcf1431 @dragonfire
Chiming in on threads.
water....ugh....metallic taste....yucky
I'm lucky to down a 6c a day.
Not much into Gatorade but orange flavour is tasty.
I add gingerale into OJ on the rocks.
It's all about trial n error.

@scottmcf1431 Water tasted funny to me as well. Now not so bad, but in the beginning I could taste things in the water if that makes sense? I'm going to try Gatorade (orange). Are your Saliva glands coming around? Mine are still minimal and I have a hard time with bread, crust, or crackers.

@harleytiger
Still having issues with any kind of dry bread, crackers or even things like pizza crusts. Everything needs to be sauced or drowned with sips of liquid to get down. I am having success with dunking a PB sandwich in chicken noodle soup for example.

Still have very dry mouth with minimal saliva, but coughing/ spitting thick mucous.