Hi -I've been here a couple times in the past few days but just registered now.My Mom has stage IV oral cancer.She had a partial glossectomy(tumor plus about 1/6 of the left side of tongue)and a modified radical left neck dissection 2 weeks ago.she is recovering well from surgery,feeding tube is outand she's eating soft food.We have an appointment with radiation oncologist Tues.Her surgeon said radiation but no chemo.She is 70 yrs. old and had 7 of 29 lymph nodes positive with extranodal cancer too.I don't have the path report so don't have all those letters and numbers.We're terrified of the radiation because of all the horror stories wev'e
heard and read.I guess my question is does every
one have these side effects?We are definitely trying to prepare for the worst but hoping for the best.She is also thinking of not taking radiation.Thanks for listening-I am so glad to have found this forum!

Cathy,
From what I know everyone does experience certain side effects from head and neck radiation, although the degree differs from person to person. It seems that everyone has mucousitis and swallowing difficulties, which eventually clear up for most people and just about all of us suffer from reduced salivation, which to some degree is permanent.
This is the price that we pay for staying alive. You do what you have to do

Best of luck with your mom,
Danny G.

Hi, Cathy G.

I am quite sure that radiation is the way for your mother to go.

While this web site is a blessing in many respects, It also is perhaps not an accurate representation when it comes to side effects and the overall positive results. In other words it can be scary and a bit negative when reading here. A good number of people go through radiation treatments without extremely terrible side effects. Granted it definately is not easy nor is it fun and the long term side effect are a problem, but the best chance of winning against this disease is to get the radiation treatments. She made it through child birth, she can do this too.

You didn't mention your mothers overall health and that probably makes a difference. You will see here a consistant reminder to seek out more than one opinion before proceeding with treatments. You likely have several more weeks to do some checking into options because they usually wait 4 to 6 weeks after surgery to start radiation.

Yes everybody will have side effects but every body is different so you don't know for sure how bad they will be. For sure there will be fatigue and plenty of it. Usually the sense of taste is altered for a period of time during and after treatments. Saliva production will drop to nearly nothing, this is probably permanent. The teeth are affected but not always seriously. and as the treatments progress mouth and throat sores develope to some degree sometimes severe. At the same time the appetite drops so that weight loss is very common. Sometimes feeding tubes are are needed to allow supplemental feeding (this is not always the case)

Recovery time varies widely, with many of the effects fading gradually over a period of 4 weeks and out to many months. It would be good for her to ramp up on high quality nutrition starting right away, and try to stay ahead of the weight loss that will very likely happen during treatment and for several weeks after treatments end.

Ask more questions as needed and take care.

Everyone that goes through radiation treatments has side effects, that is part of the process. I agree with the previous two posters that there are few choices here, and the best idea is to get ready for the process. That means putting on the weight and the nutrition heavy at the beginning while it is still possible. The second thing which you should look into, is which facilities in your area are using IMRT radiation. It seems that those here on the board, and that I talk with elsewhere, have fewer side effects as the degree of exposure is greatly reduced. We all wish her the best as she enters this next phase of treatment.