I am 7 months out of treatment, and began having sporadic ear pain about two months ago, on the side that received more radiation. Today it is particularly troublesome. Saw my MO two weeks ago and he said every thing looked and felt great. Does anybody else have this and is it caused by the radiation, or could it be something worse? I saw my ENT for this a month ago, and he thought it could be allergies and prescribed me Nasonex. I just don't know how my throat/ears are supposed to feel now. Would a cold cause me to have ear pain, now that I have had radiation? I am not having throat pain, just ear pain.

I also have ear pain on the side that was right vocal cord cancer
i think they said it is the nerves healing.boy does it hurt
mine also comes and goes.hope this helps.i have spasms on my right side of neck some times to.it always makes you think the worst.deferred ear pain is what they told me

Thanks, lolita---I had seen you post about this before, but I don't think anyone but me responded to it. When did you finish treatment? I am surprised you had radiation and 6 chemos for stage 1.

David had a post on hearing loss and ear pain, Maybe you can locate it and read what he had to say.

Hi Jim, I saw David's post re:hearing loss, I believe they were in Hayley's thread. I have done a search, but haven't been able to come up with anything re:ear pain as a late-occuring side effect. I was more concerned with the ear pain rather than the hearing loss. Anyway, I woke up with quite a sore throat today, maybe I have a virus.

i have a lot of ear pain at times. they staged me at a stage 1t1a
the ent and the oc said stage 2-3- i was in the gray area i think 6 wweks chemo 6weeks rad.now i have a nodular apperance to my vocal cord. had my pet thurs so now we wait ,.Ireally need to stop smoking.did the pet to makes sure itvwasnt a recurance i hope not. the ro i had thought i was over treatd he started just after i got there. the other one was from kansas city . he didnt think i needed chemo.
the onc i had was great he went ahead with chemo to.
just afraid it is going to move some where else please preay for me
and keep in touch

finished my tx aug 13 for chemo and rad

Lolita--can you get on the patch for the smoking? Finers crossed for your PET scan, good luck!

Oops, I can't type either; I meant fingers!

Lolita,

I can't believe after all the comments and helpful suggestions that everyone on this site has given you that YOU STILL ARE SMOKING !!! What more do we have to do?? Is there something you don't understand about your cancer's connection to tobacco and a horrible death??? Why did you even bother with the pain of treatment? Frankly I'm disappointed in you.

do you think i will stop early enough. the stress is un bearable at times.i know there is no easy way to do it.im afraid everyone will look down on me if i fail. god iwish i had never started. the 14th of jan they saw a nodual apperance to my vocal cord
so they moved up my pet scan.waiying on results tues
you always think one more wont hurt
i hope it is from the radition

My mom used to say she was going to "shake some sense in me" and perhaps my mom needs to come down from heaven and do it to you. Don't worry about what others think because you can't control that BUT you can stop smoking by JUST STOPPING. Say to yourself, self, I will never smoke again as long as I live PERIOD and DO IT. Now you will have "withdrawal systems" but be firm in your conviction and you will succeed and you will be proud of yourself for defeating this addiction. I guarantee it.

Quitting is a tough thing to do, but you can do it. As easy as it seems to say "just one more won't hurt" try applying that same approach to saying "just one more hour" each time you get the urge. I coupled that with a bottle of ice water and a review of what smoking had done to my health. After two weeks, the worse of the withdrawal was over. As David says, nearly one year later, I'm proud of what I've accomplished by quitting. You can do it, I know you can.

Its probably just preasure from healing. I get it too and thats what they say. Its part of the healing process!!! LOL

Thank you, Angie!! Wasn't sure if it is unusual, as I don't hear a lot of people mention it. I feel much better now!

i hope i can stop . i think today might have done it . now i have to go for a bio thursday on my vocal cord nodular apperance
ent didnt like it that it lite up in the pet . hope it is just from radition . still have my ear ache to

My symptoms started in '05 with referred pain to the ear. At that point in time they couldn't figure it out and dismissed it as "Swimmers ear", but it persisted, later that fall having accompanying "Spasms" in my mouth, which they thought could be TMJ but later figured out it was the tumor digging into muscles under my tongue. Once officially diagnosed and a game plan put together I was told of the referred ear pain thing!! Anyway, I still have ear aches from time to time and I still have some spasms. Most of them any more revlove around cold weather, possibly the lymphatic fluids backing up when it's colder or more humid outside (Sounds weird but I have had some interesting conversations regarding that thought process with the doctors). My ears are much more tender now, following treatment, and also, when I seem more tired or stressed the ear aches seem more intense or frequent. I am feeling great though and I just passed my yearly PET/CT and all doctors think I'm doing remarkable, so I just deal with it. Like my RO told me, "As long as the pain isn't constant or consistent it probably isn't a concern. Just stay in touch with it and if anything changes dramatically inform us (Doctors) immediately."
Lolita, I agree with David!! I won't lecture because life is too short and who am I to Judge, but why go through all of the torture of the disease and the treatment to cure yourself only to add insult to injury and continue one of the root cause habits??? The cravings never stop but the heart and head know better and should be stronger!! Throw them away or get help!! You can do it.

Best of Luck,
Steve

Steve---thanks for your input, the pain was crazy yesterday, but I haven't had any today yet. I do have sinus problems that coincide with bad weather/low barometric pressure.Yesterday we had a decent storm, so maybe I will have ear problems as well as sinus during cold or bad weather. I am going to the ENT on Tuesday, since I won't see my oncologist for another six weeks.
I need to worry less.

I am 8 mos from my last radiation and chemo treatments. About 3 months ago my throat started to hurt and got worse as time went by. My ear also started to hurt every time I swallowed I had a pet scan, a biopsy of my throat and yesterday an MRI. All came back negative, but my throat still hurts like crazy. I even had my dentist make a plate which would prevent me from grinding my teeth. I think I'm going crazy, but I know the pain is real and my throat gets filled with the sticky mucous that I got when I was getting radiation treatments. Does ANYBODY have any ideas? I'm really getting desperate. Thanks in advance

Okay that sounds just like what I am experiencing. Everything looks 'beautiful' as they put it,when they scope me, but my ear hurts and my throat hurts, I am getting bloody noses, and some days I am a little mucous-y in my throat. The doctors and dentist have suggested that I grind my teeth as well, but I'm not ready to shell out 600.00 for plate. I am feeling as desparate as you are right now. I am going to the ENT tomorrow. Will let you know!

God Bless You! That's exactly what I'm going through and I'm sure my family thinks I'm nuts. Best of luck

maybe someone can help me with this.. I remember my mom got tubes put in her ears after radiation-chemo. I just dont remember the reasoning but I know it helped, something you might want to check into.

I was going to ask my ENT that very question today re:tubes. The radiation can cause damage to the eustation tubes, can't it?

I think it may depend on your radiation plan and what type of radiation you have. I had chronic ear problems because of narrowing of the outer canal BEFORE I had treatment for oral cancer and when I see my ENT he often has to pick hard wax out of my ear. But he told me he doesn't think my radiation should have caused ear problems--the radiation wasn't close enough to any of the ear structures.

Nelie

Okay, back from the ENT. There are many, many things that cause referred ear pain. My ENT does not think this is radiation-related, or a symptom of recurrance. For it to be a symptom of recurrance the pain would be progressive instead of intermittant.
e thinks this is related to allergies and TMJ, and he thinks I should see a TMJ specialist.
I also saw my dental hygienist today, and she told me that I grind my teeth(who knew?), which will cause TMJ.
So that's the diagnosis---TMJ.

Did they give you any reason for your sore throat and the mucous getting worse? I tried the TMJ route and that didn't help. I'm still just searching for some answers. Good luck.

I forgot to ask my ENT about the mucous!! As far as the sore throat, he said he had taken quite a bit of muscle out of my throat on the left side so my throat will probably always feel weird, and the allergies on top of it all don't help.
My dental hygienist said that the mouth will continue to have changes regarding saliva/mucous for up to two years.