 Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 | Birkan,
There are many other factors that may figure into his side effects such as type of radiation (RT vs IMRT) and the path of radiation but GENERALLY a common side effect to his radiation is "dry mouth" and diminished taste especially right after radiation is completed. Again depending on those factors, most of us do recover a great deal of the saliva production and taste but it can take all of 2 years post Tx to recover as much as it will. For me it took a good 15 months before I was satisfied with my recovery. It's not 100% but if I had to guess I would say perhaps 90% back to normal.
Tell him to just be patient and see what happens. To my knowledge there is nothing that has proven to aid in the return of saliva or taste, otherwise we would all have used it.
David
Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
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